how to track your vote in Washington

There's a lot of attention being paid to tracking that your vote counts this year. In most states, you vote in person. In Washington, you probably vote by mail. (37 of Washington's 39 counties vote by mail; see the Secretary of State's info page for more information.) We like paper, and here's how to keep a paper trail if you desire:

1.Vote permanent absentee, if you live in King or Pierce counties, the only counties where vote-by-mail is not the default.. This is a moot point after this election as vote-by-mail is going to be the only way to vote in Washington after this election anyways. As it stands, this is an option in every county.

2.Vote. I don't care about much, but please don't vote for Dino Rossi and his Neanderthal queer-hating racist anti-transit anti-poor agenda. Thanks!

3.Go to your surly neighborhood copy shop and make a copy of your ballot. Copy the outer envelope with its randomly generated barcode.

4.Return the ballot via certified mail if you don't trust The Man, or regular mail if you do. You can also drop off your ballot at Drop-Off points in most counties; see your local Elections office; for example in King County, http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/voting/ballotdropboxes.aspx Or, you can just march your butt into the Elections office and hand it over. I know people who've done this.

5.There's a query function for checking that the randomly assigned barcode has been scanned in and the ballot counted. Once you see that, you're all set.

You can videotape the whole thing if you want (and post it on youtube!) but unlike in many states, there's a built-in validation process. PBS has been encouraging people to Video Your Vote and this is a great idea in states without a system for validation. If you're curious about the legality of it all, see the Citizen Media Law Project for some guidelines.