OLYMPIA, Wash. — A local state senator says it’s time for Washington to cancel mail-in voting.
Republican Doug Ericksen of Ferndale says a return to in-person voting at polling places would “restore public trust” in the voting system.
A bill he’s preparing for next year’s legislative session would require voters to show valid government-issued ID at a neighborhood polling place and voting machines would have to provide a paper trail.
Absentee ballots would be allowed under his plan but would have to be returned by election day.
Ericksen disagrees with local and state election officials who vouch for the reliability of the vote-by-mail system the state has used for a decade.
He says “we’ve gotten off lucky” in avoiding what he and others claim is disarray in other states that implemented vote-by-mail for the recent general election.