About this episode
On this BONUS ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, Feliks Banel speaks with three-term Republican former Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed about the history and origins of voting by mail in Washington state. This conversation was recorded in September 2025.
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 Trump Administration legislation before Congress which would effectively outlaw voting by mail - and, in addition, the US Supreme Court's expected decision in a case from Mississippi which might also impact Washington state - it was critical to listen again to Secretary Reed and learn the history and context for the practice in the state of Washington, and also look ahead to what might happen should the Trump 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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