24,000 Felons Will Receive Ballots for November Election

October 15, 4:02 PMSeattle Public Policy ExaminerJohn Barnes

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Evergreen Freedom Foundation has the story about 24,000 felons in Washington who will be getting ballots for the upcoming general election.

Jonathan Bechtle, an attorney with EFF, cites a press release from KIRO 7 News in Seattle:

The Washington Secretary of State’s Office has been touting its new elections super-computer, which was set up in 2006 to purge illegal voters off the rolls.

KIRO-TV’s Investigative Reporter, Chris Halsne conducted an independent computer analysis to double-check the accuracy of the system.

Our research uncovered a significant flaw in the way the Secretary of State’s Office decided to handle felon voters.

Approximately 24,000 convicted felons will get ballots in the mail, despite a probability these criminals are ineligible to vote.

This is no mistake or oversight. Halsne discovered the new elections computer system was intentionally programmed to preclude a vast number of felons.

The plan was suppose to forever remain under wraps, but instead the public will hear about it during an exclusive KIRO Team 7 Investigation, scheduled to air tonight, Wednesday, October 15th at 11 pm on Channel 7 (CBS).

 This comes in the wake of Evergreen Freedom Foundation's lawsuit against the Secretary of State's office for allowing 16 and 17-year olds to register to vote.

It seems Washington still has a long ways to go in cleaning up its election system.

UPDATE:  Here's the KIRO 7 story on felons getting ballots.