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Tag: King County

Illegal Booze at Wellington

Illegal Booze at Wellington

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: Found in The Seattle Telegraph, Nov. 13, 1894, p. 8: THE COUNTY BOUNDARY  Twelve Men in Judge Humes’ Court Define It.  ILLEGAL WHISKEY TRAFFIC  Defendants Take Refuge Behind Technical Bulwark and Escape Penalty for Their Crimes — Some Groundless Fear That the Verdict May Affect the Election Count of Martin Creek and Wellington.  “A jury in Judge Humes’ court yesterday acquitted Pat Cunningham of the…

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Need shopping ideas? Check out your State Archives!

Need shopping ideas? Check out your State Archives!

Photo courtesy Washington State Archives With Christmas just weeks away, many of us might want to give a relative or that special friend a unique gift that you won’t see on TV and just can’t find in a big store, a catalog or online. But you might not know what to get or where to get it. Here’s an idea: Buy a wonderful historic photo from the State Archives! Besides having millions and millions of public documents, our State Archives…

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Census: King County to offer elections material in Vietnamese

Census: King County to offer elections material in Vietnamese

Our Elections Division received word Wednesday morning from the U.S. Census Bureau on which political jurisdictions in Washington and other states must provide language assistance during elections for groups who are unable to sufficiently speak or understand English to take part in voting. The Census announcement  shows that King is the only county in Washington that is impacted by the new Census determinations based on the minority language provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act. King County already is subject…

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Hate moving? Imagine King County Elections’ headache

Hate moving? Imagine King County Elections’ headache

Just as Washington’s largest county elections department was settling in to a state-of-the-art headquarters building, they’ve had to move, at least temporarily, to avoid possible flood waters from the Howard Hanson Dam. The department, which tends to the needs of over 1.1 million registered voters, has just opened its new temporary home on the grounds of Boeing Field, on East Marginal Way not far from the Museum of Flight. Elections Director Sherril Huff says the move from Renton to Tukwila has…

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King County jurist declines to block R-71

King County jurist declines to block R-71

King County Superior Court Judge Julie Spector has refused to block Referendum 71 from the ballot. Further litigation is considered likely, but state attorneys expect the R-71 election to be on the Nov. 3 ballot across Washington state.  Most voters will be voting by mail; the earliest ballots, for military and overseas voters, must go out by Oct. 3. Minutes after Secretary of State Sam Reed certified the measure to the statewide ballot, the judge turned aside a challenge brought…

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Judge hears challenge of R-71 signature-checking

Judge hears challenge of R-71 signature-checking

King County Superior Court Judge Julie Spector has heard arguments in a court case challenging the state Election Division’s signature-checking for Referendum 71,  the attempt by foes of the state’s new “everything but marriage” law to force a public vote on the legislation in November. The judge took the case under advisement and said she will rule on Wednesday morning. That is the same time frame as Secretary of State Sam Reed’s for certifying R-71 to the ballot.  The Elections…

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Lawsuit filed against Secretary of State over R-71

Lawsuit filed against Secretary of State over R-71

A lawsuit has been filed in King County Superior Court by Washington Families Standing Together requesting a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the Secretary of State from certifying Referendum 71 to the ballot.  The Secretary of State is the defendant in the lawsuit. The Attorney General’s Office and Deputy Solicitor General Jeff Even will represent the Secretary of State in the lawsuit. The attorneys are scheduling hearings for early next week in King County Superior Court.  The case has been…

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Noble’s successor: All-comers to clash in KingCo

Noble’s successor: All-comers to clash in KingCo

King County voters will chose an assessor successor to Scott Noble this November. Noble, assessor for 16 years before resigning Thursday, was sentenced Friday to eight months in jail after pleading guilty to a felony count of vehicular homicide, in connection with a wrong-way crash on Interstate 5 that injured two women and himself. Authorities said his blood alcohol level was almost  three times the legal limit. The wreck was Jan. 18; he stayed on the job another five months. State elections official Katie Blinn…

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King of the hill … and happy snail mail

King of the hill … and happy snail mail

King County (Seattle) has now officially shifted to conducting all elections by mail. With neighboring Pierce (Tacoma) now the only holdout for partial use of poll-site voting, Washington has nearly completed a dramatic, and voluntary, shift to all-mail voting over the past decade. The state Elections Division recently gave provisional approval to new, faster ballot tabulation equipment, and King County Elections’ new popularly elected director, Sherril Huff, greenlighted all-mail voting. The County Council on Monday made it official, adopting an ordinance.  Huff’s office says, “We are ecstatic…

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Faster, faster: King, Pierce voting systems green-lighted

Faster, faster: King, Pierce voting systems green-lighted

New vote-tabulation equipment in Washington’s two largest counties soon will get emergency certification from the Secretary of State.  The State Voting Systems Review Board, meeting in Seattle on Thursday, unanimously recommended a provisional green light while awaiting federal certification, which is in the final stages. For Pierce County, it’s for renewal of last year’s emergency certification of Sequoia equipment for “ranked choice voting” for county offices. For King, it’s certification of Premier election equipment that is much, much faster than the old…

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