I grew up in rural Snohomish County but, like so many do, when high school concluded, I graduated to the greener pastures of college and new adventures. I have not been a fulltime resident of Snohomish County since 2000, and I have made a home in the San Francisco Bay area home since 2007.
While I have moved on from my childhood in Snohomish County, and become a permanent resident and registered voter in another state, Snohomish County can’t seem to move on from me. During the past 13 years that I have lived out of state (and been a permanent resident of said states), I have continued to receive numerous mail-in ballots and jury summons from Snohomish County.
I assumed that these jury summons and mail-in ballots were a simple clerical error. Had to be a typo, right? So I called. Then I called another office. And another. I wrote a letter. All of that grief and time spent on hold should save a few trees in the form of mail-in ballots, right? Alas, I received another ballot in my mailbox here in California. Apparently, desperately pleading, “I am a permanent resident in another state where I am registered to vote, etc,” is not an effective strategy. Strangely, I’m unsure why Snohomish County would have my address.
This begs the question, how many people, like me, have tried to leave Snohomish County but can’t escape a deluge of mail-in ballots? How many people are on Snohomish County’s voting rosters who have been permanent residents of other states for 15 or more years? Why? But mostly, please, Snohomish County, let me leave.
Rachel Laine
Santa Rosa, Calif.
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