The Snohomish County Council made a good choice last week when it picked Carolyn Diepenbrock as the new County auditor.
Diepenbrock has experience in all the office’s function, having served as elections manager since 2003 and licensing manager for 13 years before that.
She replaces Bob Terwilliger, who left the post at the end of December. Terwilliger left with one year left in his term because the County Charter prevents him from seeking a fourth term. He has taken the appointed job of administrator of the County Superior Court.
Diepenbrock, who played an important role in the County’s conversion to all-mail voting, will be in position to oversee the conversion from a September primary to an August primary.
In addition to managing the August primary and the November general election, Diepenbrock will be running for a full four-year term as elected non-partisan auditor.
Secretary of State’s legislative proposals make sense
Secretary of Secretary of State Sam Reed has given the Legislature a series of proposals to improve elections. They have merit.
One is for a statewide voters’ pamphlet for primary elections in even-numbered years.
This made me ask, “Don’t we already get a voters’ pamphlet before every primary and general election?”
The answer is that the state distributes a statewide voters’ pamphlet each year for the general election, but the pamphlets we get for the primary elections are sponsored by County government.
Snohomish County is lucky to one of the counties that have a voters’ pamphlet for the primary.
Reed wants everyone in the State to get a voters’ pamphlet, particularly for judicial contests.
“I think it’s very, very important particularly because so many of these judicial races are being decided in the primary,” he said in December.
Because any judicial candidate who gets a majority of the primary vote is unopposed in the general election, the Administrative Office of the Courts has long produced a guide for judicial offices that appears in many newspapers prior to the Primary, but not all voters see it.
The Office of the Secretary of State posts an online primary voters’ pamphlet, but voters must search the Web site.
Reed wants a statewide pamphlet that will go to every voters’ home.
Legislators should support it.
A day to wear anything but blue
Today is “Blue Friday” in honor of the Seahawks’ playoff game Sunday.
It’s time to stop the face painting and the rest of the foolishness. That doesn’t fit our corner of America.
Seeing adults paint their faces blue or wear blue eyelashes makes me wish that we’d let former owner Ken Behring move the team to California.
So make today a day to wear your Chicago Bear colors.
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