I wrote a couple of weeks ago that the Lake Forest Park Library is the only place in Shoreline or Lake Forest Park to drop off ballots for free.
Nearby drop boxes are at the Woodinville Library and at Seattle neighborhood service centers in Ballard, Lake City and the University District.
Say it ain’t so, Pierce County
With King County having switched to all-mail voting this year, Pierce County is now the only one of Washington’s 39 counties with poll voting.
The days of poll voting in Pierce County, and in the state, may be numbered.
That’s because the Pierce County auditor has proposed having the county join the state’s other 38 counties in switching to all-mail voting. Pierce County would make the switch for the same reason the rest of us have: It’s simply too expensive to operate polling places when most people vote at home.
As a long-time absentee voter, I’ve liked going to my neighborhood polling station — if only to drop off the ballot that I completed at home.
I like knowing that there’s at least one place in the state where people vote the old-fashioned way.
Still, while poll voting saves Pierce County voters the price of postage, it means that government uses a lot of its limited resources for elections.
Big Shoreline campaign spending
Thirteen weeks before the general election, Shoreline City Council candidates have raised $104,698. That makes Shoreline’s election the third most expensive in the state on a per capita basis.
The strange election for a county assessor
The next chapter in the soap opera election for a King County assessor is next week’s three-day filing period that will give us at least two candidates for a November special election.
Two years ago we elected Scott Noble to a four-year term as assessor.
Then, early this year, Noble got into a freeway crash that led to his pleading guilty to vehicular assault, a felony.
Other county officials urged him to resign before June 1. That would have allowed a regular filing period for an August primary. His late resignation created the special filing period for a November election with no primary.
Deputy Assessor Rich Medved took over and prepared to run for the office. Then suffered a stroke, leaving chief appraiser Lynn Gering as acting assessor and likely to file next week. Port Commissioner Lloyd Hara is the only other announced candidate.
Evan Smith can be reached at entpolitics@heraldnet.com.
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