NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

It’s Special Election Day! Have you voted?

In many juris­dic­tions across Wash­ing­ton State, today is a spe­cial elec­tion day. While it is com­mon knowl­edge that we hold a Top Two elec­tion in August and the gen­er­al elec­tion (which is real­ly more like a runoff, thanks to Top Two) in Novem­ber of every year, state law also pro­vides for two spe­cial elec­tion win­dows: one in Feb­ru­ary, and one in April. The April spe­cial elec­tion peri­od con­cludes today.

In King Coun­ty, there are sev­er­al mea­sures on the bal­lot. Just one is coun­ty­wide — the oth­ers are con­fined either to cities or spe­cial districts.

So if you live in King Coun­ty and are reg­is­tered to vote, you got a bal­lot with at least one mea­sure on it. That’s Propo­si­tion 1, which would fund the replace­ment of the region’s aging radio net­work for first respon­ders. NPI sup­ports a “Yes” vote on this levy; more details about it are avail­able in this post.

Sample ballot for April 28th, 2015 special election

Also on the bal­lot in King County:

  • The City of Sam­mamish is ask­ing its res­i­dents, in a non­bind­ing plebiscite, whether they would like the pow­ers of ini­tia­tive and ref­er­en­dum to be added to the city char­ter. Most cities in King Coun­ty have direct democracy.
  • Cit­i­zens in the Kla­hanie neigh­bor­hood in east King Cout­ny will decide whether they would like to join Sam­mamish. Present­ly, Kla­hanie is in unin­cor­po­rat­ed King Coun­ty. Sam­mamish is propos­ing to annex Kla­hanie after vot­ers there repeat­ed­ly declined to join Issaquah. Many res­i­dents of Kla­hanie have pre­vi­ous­ly expressed a pref­er­ence for Sam­mamish over Klahanie.
  • A levy to pay for street resur­fac­ing, enhanced asphalt patch­ing and crack seal­ing is being con­sid­ered in the greater Cov­ing­ton area.
  • South King Fire and Res­cue is seek­ing approval to issue bonds to acquire new fire­fight­ing equip­ment. To pass, this propo­si­tion must receive a 60% yes vote, and at least 40% of the vot­ers in the juris­dic­tion must participate.
  • The Enum­claw School Dis­trict is also seek­ing approval to issue bonds, for school mod­ern­iza­tion. The 60⁄40 rule will be in effect for this mea­sure too.
  • Vashon res­i­dents will decide whether to renew their parks levy.

Mea­sures are also on the bal­lot in oth­er coun­ties in Wash­ing­ton State.

If you were sent a bal­lot, be sure to fill out and send it back in, either through a post office, or by tak­ing it to a drop box. Don’t blow off this spe­cial elec­tion: vote and exer­cise your civic responsibilities!

We’ll have analy­sis of the results tonight after 8 PM.

Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 2:46 PM

Categories: Elections

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