Voters Registered Via UPS Ruled Ineligible

Voter-registration forms that arrived late after being sent by UPS instead of through the U.S. Postal Service mean about 1,100 King County residents are now ineligible to vote in the November election, election officials said.

The signed forms were collected in Pierce County during a drive to register more minority and low-income voters. They arrived at election headquarters Oct. 9 after being picked up by UPS a day before the Oct. 7 deadline for mailing registration forms.

Registration forms from Pierce County residents were hand-delivered to election officials there. But officials said King County residents' forms arrived too late because state law allows registrations to be processed only if there is a "postal cancellation" by the deadline.

"They didn't have a U.S. postmark that was posted in time," Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Janine Joly said.

The UPS shipping tag showed only the Oct. 9 date. There was nothing on the package that confirmed the box with the registration forms had been mailed before the deadline, elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said Friday.

UPS records do show the package was initially picked up in Fife at 2:05 p.m. Oct. 6.

"If you send it by the post office, we're going off the postmark. If you send it by a private organization, it's the date of receipt," said Nick Handy, state elections director in the Office of the Secretary of State.

State law appears to conflict with voters' register-by-mail rights set out by the federal "Motor Voter Act," said Michael Slater, director of the election administration program for Project Vote, which funded the voter-registration drive.

A lawsuit will be filed if King County doesn't agree to let the 1,100 registrants vote, Slater said.

"We're looking for a resolution to get these folks on the rolls," he said, adding that he hoped the prosecuting attorney and the secretary of state would "look at the facts again and make the right decision."

Voters have through Monday to register in person at King County Elections offices at 500 Fourth Ave. in downtown Seattle.