Buffeted daily by enough disturbing national and international news generated by Trump and his minions attempting to put Project 2025 into law, it is easy to miss that local governing bodies are still at work—and, in part, at work trying to adjust to and compensate for the Trump/Musk efforts to dismantle the federal government. Today, while acknowledging the importance of keeping up with and protesting all that, I want to turn our attention to local elections.
Every year in Washington State there is a Primary and a General Election, although you might be pardoned if you were relatively unaware that elections occur in odd-numbered years (like this year). The candidates and questions that appear on these odd-numbered year ballots are almost always hyper-local, that is, less than county-wide. They encompass city elective offices, school board “directors” (school board “members” is the common usage), district court judgeships, and fire district commissioners.
This year Primary ballot turn-in is Tuesday, August 5. For the General Election it’s November 4. Ballots “drop”, i.e. head to the mailboxes of registered voters, eighteen days before the due date, July 18 and October 17. Do not be surprised when a ballot appears in your mailbox the end of next week!
Who and what will be on my Primary Election ballot?
It’s complicated.
For example, in this “election cycle”, i.e. the combination of the Primary and General Elections, three of the six City of Spokane City Council seats are up for election. In each case it is the City Council seat designated “Position 2” of the two positions in each of the three Districts that is up for election. However, this year only one of the three Districts will have candidates to choose from on the Primary ballot, District 3, roughly northwest Spokane. Why? The rule is that if only two candidates file to run for election they advance to the General Election automatically and do not appear on the Primary ballot at all. Only contests with three or more candidates appear on the Primary ballot. Your voting will determine which two candidates advance to the General Election in November. You can see all this in table form for all the positions on ballots this year in Spokane County. (The right hand column shows “In Primary” or “Advanced to General”.) If you live and vote in Washington State I encourage you to visit that Candidate List and select your county to see who will be on your ballot.
Puzzled by all the positions and wondering which will appear on your particular ballot? Visit Vote.wa.gov, click “Your Elected Officials” and scroll down to below the “District Court” listings. (For example, I see Spokane City Council, Municipal Court Judgeships, and School Board “Director” positions will appear on my ballots. Yours will vary.) With a little homework correlating your districts with the Candidate List you can figure out who will appear on your ballot. It’s an exercise in civics. While you’re at Vote.wa.gov verify that your home and mailing addresses are accurate by clicking “Your Voter Registration”.
With those links and a little homework you can construct for yourself a table of all of the candidates who will appear on your ballots this year. This is a case where “doing your own research” makes a lot of sense. Once you familiarize yourself with the choices you’ll be presented, you will be able to pay better attention to news about the candidates.
Other election information? In Spokane County go to spokanecounty.org / Your Government / Elections / Current Election.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
P.S. Thanks to the U.S. Constitution each state decides its own dates for elections (and which positions are up for election), so my out-of-state readers will need to search out links to information in their home state. The fact that, at least in Presidential election years, we all vote in a General Election on the first Tuesday in November, is thanks to the growth of communication by telegraph in the 1840s. In order to try to keep results of voting for Electoral College Presidential Electors in one state from influencing the results elsewhere, the U.S. Congress mandated the first Tuesday in November for the General Election, at least in Presidential years. Click here for more election history musings from 2024, a Presidential Election year.