State Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle) announced today that he would introduce legislation next session to bar campaigns and parties from picking up ballots at people's homes.

The practice of sending partisan operatives door to door turned into the last brouhaha of the local election this past weekend when it came to light that the GOP and the Rob McKenna campaign were paying people to "chase" ballots.

McKenna told KIRO TV that the activists were only picking up ballots from GOP voters who'd asked for ballot couriers.  However, a McKenna campaign email obtained by PubliCola shows that McKenna was asking his troops to join up with the party operation, which was going door to door more indiscriminately.

The conseravtive blog, The Washington State Wire, reported today that the Democrats themselves had used similiar tactics in 2010, though without targeting Democratic households.

Democrat Murray got the last word.

From this afternoon's press release:

In response to these tactics, Senator Murray, chair of the Washington State Senate Ways & Means Committee, announced today he would introduce legislation in Olympia to rein in the activities of these partisan operatives whose actions create the conditions for potential voter fraud and undermine confidence in the system. Secretary of State Sam Reed and other election officials have actively discouraged the tactic, but Republicans have continued their efforts unabated.
 
“The fact that Rob McKenna and Republican operatives are brazenly engaged in this ballot collection scheme in spite of public warnings from respected elections officials  – thus breaking the chain of custody between the voter and the state by inserting partisan political operatives into the process – threatens to undermine public confidence in the integrity of our election process,” said Murray.