Sign-up efforts bring in 330,000 new voters

By J. Patrick Coolican and Justin Mayo
Seattle Times staff reporters

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Other links King County election information Snohomish County elections/voting division Kitsap County auditor's office Pierce County auditor Secretary of State: Elections & voting

The massive voter-registration efforts of both major parties and their allied interest groups have contributed to more than 330,000 voter registrations in the state, mostly in counties that traditionally vote Democratic, according to figures from Washington counties.

Many of the new voters were targeted by liberal interest groups, whose paid workers and volunteers stood on downtown street corners and knocked on the doors of subsidized-housing developments — an effort that came at considerable financial cost.

Precinct data in King County show the areas with large numbers of newly registered voters — Issaquah, Kent, the University District and downtown Seattle, for example — selected the Democratic ballot for last month's primary.

For their part, Republicans, who used mostly volunteers and aggressively recruited in churches, are heartened by their efforts — not traditionally associated with the GOP — to find new voters.

Around the state, election crews are struggling — sometimes working nights and weekends — to keep up with the surge in voter interest and registrations that are far outpacing those for the 2000 general election.

King County, for instance, is on pace to add about 140,000 voters this year, compared with about 100,000 in 2000. Pierce County has signed up more than 50,000 new voters, twice the rate of four years ago.

Registering to vote The deadline to register by mail to vote in the Nov. 2 general election has passed, but residents have until Oct. 18 to register in person at county elections offices. For information: King County: 206-296-8683 (VOTE) Snohomish County: 425-388-3444 Kitsap County: 360-337-7128 Pierce County: 253-798-7430 or 800-446-4979

Across the country, a close presidential race, ample money for registration drives, media attention and a feeling that this election is more significant than most have spurred the young and the formerly apolitical to sign up.

"The stakes are higher," said Brett Colbo, 24, of Federal Way, who registered for the first time earlier this year.

Whether the parties can get the new voters to the polls Nov. 2 — or cajole them to send in their absentee ballots — could determine the outcome of the election nationwide, and down the ticket here in Washington.

Although the majority of people who register late in a campaign usually end up voting, political scientists are unsure whether this year's crop will be as inclined to vote because they were aggressively recruited rather than motivated on their own, said professor Donald Green, the head of the Institute for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University.

County auditors from Island County to Spokane say they haven't seen anything like this.

New registration is up 80 percent in Grant County, 60 percent in San Juan County. Secretary of State Sam Reed says voter-registration groups requested 1.5 million registration forms — an unprecedented number.

The Bush campaign, the state Republican Party and their allies used mostly volunteers — relying in particular on an evangelical Christian infrastructure — to sign up at least 50,000 new voters, said Leah Yoon, spokeswoman for the Bush campaign.

Chris Vance, GOP chairman in a state that's leaned Democratic lately, thinks that number undercounts church registrations.

He predicts areas that have traditionally been Democratic will bring surprises. "We had black churches in Seattle registering people who want to defend the institution of marriage. ... We're out there, too, this year."

Colbo, a mortgage broker, is one of Vance's new voters. A Bush/Cheney volunteer approached the moderate Republican. He'll be voting for the first time this year because, he said, he supports President Bush on the Iraq war.

Liberal interest groups, though, seem to have dominated the registration contest.

Washington Citizen Action, a left-leaning grassroots lobbying group, has signed up 51,000 voters since February, said Bill Monto, associate director. The group had volunteers and also used $300,000 from America's Families United, paying eight to 10 workers $8.50 an hour to seek unregistered people at college campuses, bus stops and often in low-income neighborhoods.

Haile Tensae, 38 and a naturalized citizen from Eritrea, spent every Friday beginning in July registering new voters for Washington Citizen Action at Alki, Golden Gardens in Ballard and North Seattle Community College.

Bothered by people who complain but do nothing, he decided to volunteer.

"It's fulfilling. It just feels so good to help them," he said of registering new voters.

Though Washington Citizen Action is nonpartisan, liberals think the group's work will help Democratic candidates.

Same with the Washington chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Jenny Lawson, a spokeswoman, said ACORN signed up 34,434 voters this year, at times employing up to 40 people.

The state Democratic Party, inundated with volunteers, sent them off with voter-registration forms, spokeswoman Kirstin Brost said. The result: 22,000 new voters, she said.

"It's a big part of this year's strategy, to bring a lot of new people into the political process," said Paul Berendt, state Democratic Party chairman. "There was a general belief that many of the people who opposed [President] Bush and his policies were not participating."

It's not surprising that Democrats would have an advantage in registering new voters, said John Gastil, a professor at the University of Washington who studies campaigns.

"This is Democratic territory because unregistered voters tend to be lower-income and minority, and they tend to vote Democratic," he said.

He noted, however, that many evangelical Christians, once steadfastly apolitical, have been drawn to politics by social issues such as gay marriage. That's given Republicans an opportunity, he said.

The parties and their allies are now shifting their attention to getting the newly registered to vote. Election officials late next week will begin mailing absentee ballots, which accounted for nearly two-thirds of all votes cast in Washington in 2002.

Both major parties and their allied groups hope to make face-to-face contact with their targeted voters — most of them entered into a database — in the crucial last days before the election.

Before that, the campaigns will turn to their databases to find the absentee voters they signed up and remind them to vote.

New voters were urged to ask for absentee ballots, and with good reason. Gastil said voters are much more likely to vote if they don't have to show up at the polls.

Monto, of Washington Citizen Action, said 90 percent of the group's newly registered voters will get absentee ballots. ACORN's absentee rate is 75 percent.

In the coming weeks, volunteers will go door to door, encouraging new voters to fill out their ballots and put them in the mailbox. ACORN even considered carrying stamps but decided against it due to the cost and questions about legality.

Some November outcomes could hinge on those stamps.

J. Patrick Coolican: 206-464-3315 or jcoolican@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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