On this BONUS EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with three-term Republican former Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed about the history of voting by mail in Washington state.

Secretary Reed was in office from 2001 to 2013, and previously served as the elected auditor of Thurston County. In this earlier role, he was one of the first public officials to support efforts to adopt voting by mail in the Evergreen State back in the early 1980s. Washington became the second all-vote-by-mail state in 2011; Oregon was first a decade earlier.

With recent talk from the Trump Administration of a federal effort to end voting by mail – which, on its face, is likely unconstitutional – it seemed like a good time to speak with Secretary Reed and learn some of the history and context for the practice in the state of Washington, and also look ahead to what might happen should the federal effort proceed.

CASCADE OF HISTORY is broadcast LIVE most Sunday nights at 8pm Pacific Time via SPACE 101.1 FM in Seattle and gallantly streams everywhere via www.space101fm.org. The radio station broadcasts from studios at historic Magnuson Park – located in the former Master-at-Arms’ quarters in the old Sand Point Naval Air Station - on the shores of Lake Washington in Seattle.

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