Despite questions about their voting eligibility, nearly 24,000 convicted felons in Washington state will receive ballots for November’s election, according to a report by Chris Halsne of KIRO-Seattle. In 2006, the Secretary of State’s Office unveiled a program meant to identify and purge ineligible voters from the register, but the results are inaccurate. Those familiar with the election program said it was intentionally programmed to ignore felons who were convicted prior to 2006 because “it was going to be too difficult to research which ones can legally vote.” Based on a study by the Washington Department of Correction, it is likely that 65 percent of those felons receiving ballots have not completed the necessary steps to restore their voting rights. Of the the felons on the register, 6,812 are considered “very likely voters” because they have cast ballots in other election this year.
Washington state felons to get ballots despite eligibility concerns
Posted on October 16th, 2008
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