{"id":60559,"date":"2022-10-14T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-14T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/two-king-county-proposals-up-for-a-vote-in-nov-general-election\/"},"modified":"2022-10-25T11:32:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T18:32:11","slug":"two-king-county-proposals-up-for-a-vote-in-nov-general-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/two-king-county-proposals-up-for-a-vote-in-nov-general-election\/","title":{"rendered":"Two King County proposals up for a vote in Nov. general election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
With general election ballots arriving in King County mailboxes this week, it’s time for local voters to study up on the two measures being out before them.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Ballots should arrive by this Friday, and must be mailed back or dropped off in an official ballot box by Nov. 8.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Here’s a short guide to the two King County-wide proposals being put to a vote:<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
EVEN NUMBER ELECTION YEARS<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Tired of feeling like you’ve got a ballot to fill out almost every season? Then you may want to consider approving Charter Amendment No. 1, which will change when county representatives have their elections.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t National elections always take place on even-numbered years, but King County has elections for its executive, council members, assessor, and elections director on odd years. Approving the amendment would change that and limit the number of times you vote.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t If this amendment passes, the assessor, elections director, and council members representing districts 2, 4, 6, and 8 will be held in 2026, rather than 2025. The county executive and remaining council members would have their election scheduled for 2028, rather than 2027.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t This means that those elected in 2023 (consisting of the former group mentioned above) and 2025 (the latter), the last odd elections for the county, would serve only three terms before being up for election again. Four-year terms would resume after the even elections.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Beyond potentially reducing voter fatigue, the county hopes to increase voter turnout, as participation in even elections is always higher than odd elections; even elections are also more diverse than odd elections.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t There is no official opposition to this amendment.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The county already elections its prosecuting attorney and superior court judges during even elections.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Washington state legislators introduced a bill (HB 2529) in the 2019-2020 session to change all local jurisdiction elections to even years in 2020, but it did not leave its committee.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t