Ballot Questions Answered
Q: Haven’t gotten your ballot?
A: The first thing to do is log into VoteWA to check the status of your ballot. There is a link on the Auditor’s website, and I am posting it here: https://voter.votewa.gov/portal2023/login.aspx.
Doublecheck that you are in the district that is eligible to vote on these particular ballot issues.
If the election applies to your town, and your voter registration address is within the town, then it’s possible that the mail is late. This has been happening a lot lately. If you have not received a ballot by the week before the election, contact the Auditor’s office for a replacement.
IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMNEDED TO USE THE BALLOT DROP BOXES TO RETURN BALLOTS. As we have seen, the US mail is just not reliable enough anymore to ensure a timely postmark and ballot return. Any WA state voter can sign up for SMS (text) updates to let them know their ballot has been received. Once you have logged in to the VoteWA portal there is an option to sign up for this service.
Q: Why is this election happening here, and now?
A: Each taxing district decides when to put their issues on the ballot. If you have a question or concern about a particular election, I would recommend contacting your town council representative or the mayor to ask them why they chose this particular election date.
State law (RCW 29A.04.321) spells out the dates when elections may be held, and the February and April dates are typically used for levies and bond issues. There are many reasons for this – budget deadlines, number of votes required for passage, etc. It may seem counterintuitive, but putting an issue like this on a November ballot may not get as many votes as you might think. Those ballots tend to be quite long, and often people only vote for the top of the ticket and don’t even bother with the second page. Having an important issue on a ballot all by itself brings more attention to it than if it were buried in a ballot with 20 other things on it.
My personal feeling is that there is seldom only one way to do most anything. The details of this election were decided by our elected officials. You can let them know how you feel, and if they are making decisions you disagree with, or you don’t feel as though you are being heard, you can run for office and advocate for the issues you care about.
If you want to learn more about how our elections are run here in Okanogan county, our Auditor welcomes observers. I have observed many times and find it extremely interesting. Both the major political parties have observers present for most of the ballot processing, and you could contact one of them to sign up as a volunteer. If you don’t want to affiliate with either party, you can contact the Auditor to sign up as an independent observer.
