King County agrees to pay extra postage for new weighty ballots

By Susan Gilmore
Seattle Times staff reporter

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The ballot weighed 1.1 ounces — too much to mail with a single 37 cent stamp — and she was told she needed to put another stamp on the ballot or it would be returned.

"It blows me away how I accidentally found out about this," said the Newcastle woman. "I hope people don't chuck it. If you're a conscientious voter you have to put on another stamp."

Not exactly, said Ernie Swanson, spokesman with the Postal Service.

He said the King County ballots, longer because the races are now divided by party, do weigh over the 1 ounce limit for 37-cent postage. But he said the Post Office has reached an agreement with King County that the county would pay the extra 23-cents postage required for the oversized ballots.

But if voters take their ballots to the post office they'll have to put on an extra stamp, he said.

The Post Office weighed several ballots and they were all over 1 ounce, Swanson said. He said the county should have told voters the ballots would cost 60-cents to mail "and that would have saved everyone the extra handling."

The ballots are longer because of a new primary-election law that requires voters to choose Democratic, Republican or Libertarian ballots. Because all partisan races are listed separately by party on the ballot, the ballots are longer and heavier to mail.

Dean Logan, head of King County elections, confirmed that the county will pay the extra postage. With the county expecting 284,000 absentee ballots will be returned that could cost the county $65,000 — money that will come from funds the state appropriated to counties to help finance the new primary. King County received $2 million.

King County Elections Superintendent Bill Huennekens said the weight of the ballots was a surprise because county officials had taken a sample mailing to a post office and were told each ballot weighed less than one ounce.

In a test mailing of the new ballot, return envelopes carried 37 cents metered postage, and hundreds were mailed to the county without any indication that they were overweight, he said.
 
"The most important thing is that voters can still mail their ballots with a single stamp," Logan said. "We don't want any ballots returned."

Pierce County is paying the postage for its absentee ballots, using the money allocated by the state. The lengthy Pierce County ballot weighs 1.9 ounces and will cost 60-cents to mail.

Snohomish County ballots still cost one stamp.

"The ballots themselves are three columns front and back, so yeah, they are heavier," Elections Division Manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said. But even if voters forget to tear off the "stub" they're supposed to keep, the ballots and envelope weigh in at exactly one ounce, she said.

Absentee ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day, September 14.

Huennekens said he expects returned ballots for the Nov. 2 general election to weigh under one ounce because those ballots will be smaller.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com

Times staff reporter Keith Ervin and Times Snohomish County bureau reporter Emily Heffter contributed to this report.