03/20/2007

By RACHEL LA CORTE  / Associated Press

People whose names do not perfectly match identifying information in other government databases will still be allowed to register to vote, but election officials will be able to flag their names and require additional information before their ballots are counted, under a settlement announced by the state Monday.

The agreement comes nearly a year after federal judge barred the state from enforcing a new law that would have kept such people off the voter rolls.

The law, designed to help prevent voter fraud, took effect Jan. 1, 2006, but was struck down by U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez in August. It had directed Secretary of State Sam Reed to compare driver's licenses, state identification cards or Social Security numbers on registration forms with records from state and federal agencies to ensure that a voter's information matches.

Potential voters could not be registered without a proper match. People whose applications were questioned had to respond to the state's efforts to verify their identity within 45 days, or they were not included on the rolls.

Under the settlement that was signed last Friday, those people would be added to the rolls, but their names would be flagged and any ballots cast would not be counted until additional identification is provided.

The settlement was reached between Reed's office and the Washington Association of Churches, minority voter groups, a labor union and anti-poverty activists.

"The compromise is we'll let them register but we'll flag them and not let them vote until they give us proper registration to prove there's a real person there," Reed said. "We wouldn't back off the idea that we would make sure there was a real ballot identification before someone could actually participate."

Messages left after hours with the association, and with the attorney who represented the groups, were not immediately returned Monday.