BONUS ENCORE EPISODE: History of Vote By Mail in Washington State with Sec of State Sam Reed

On this BONUS ENCORE EPISODE of CASCADE OF HISTORY, we listen back to Feliks Banel’s September 2025 interview with three-term Republican former Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed about the origins and 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 more than a year of rhetoric from the Trump Administration targeting the popular and proven practice of voting by mail - or to otherwise sow chaos in advance of the 2026 midterm elections - it was a good time to hear from former Secretary Reed to learn the history and context for the practice in the state of Washington, and to also look ahead to what might happen should the federal effort intensify. Links to more information as well as images related to most topics discussed on the show are often available at the CASCADE OF HISTORY Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/groups/cascadeofhistory 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. Subscribe to the CASCADE OF HISTORY podcast via most podcast platforms and never miss regular weekly episodes of Sunday night broadcasts as well as frequent bonus episodes.