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Elections

Start your engines! Filing Week May 13-17!

Start your engines! Filing Week May 13-17!

Candidate Filing Week, the official kickoff of the 2013 campaign season, is coming soon. For candidates throughout Washington, including local offices and three State Senate seats, it all begins Monday morning with the launch of Filing Week. For state offices, online filing begins Monday at 9 a.m. and runs night and day until 4 p.m. Friday, May 17. (Some county elections departments provide online filing, too.) In-person filing with the Secretary of State starts Monday at 8 a.m. and ends…

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April special election ballot-counting winding down

April special election ballot-counting winding down

Voting in the April special election ended on Tuesday, and the 21 counties that had measures or races have been busy counting ballots. For those of you wondering how certain races or bond or levy measures are faring, go here to see the results (just click on the county name after opening the link to view the results) for all the counties that were part of the special election, or a county-by-county breakdown of the results. Those counties will certify…

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Inslee signs bill boosting electors’ compensation

Inslee signs bill boosting electors’ compensation

Secretary Wyman stands with legislative intern Nate Hauger (middle) and Rep. Steve Bergquist outside the Governor’s Office prior to Gov. Inslee signing the  presidential electors’ compensation bill into law.   Gov. Jay Inslee has signed legislation raising the expense allowance for members of the state’s Electoral College, the party activists who cast the state’s electoral votes for the U.S. presidential ticket that wins the state popular vote. The rate had been unchanged since statehood. House Bill 1639 adjusts the travel,…

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Lawmakers OK General Election for judges, SPI Top 2

Lawmakers OK General Election for judges, SPI Top 2

The Legislature has sent Gov. Jay Inslee a Top 2 elections bill that requires the two primary favorites for each race for Supreme Court, Appeals Court, Superior Court and  state school superintendent to advance to the General Election ballot. Currently it is possible for judges and SPI to prevail in the primary by getting more than 50 percent, with the victor going alone to the General Election ballot. This happened last fall in some judicial races and in Randy Dorn’s…

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College Civics tour: Kim heads to WSU

College Civics tour: Kim heads to WSU

(Photos courtesy of JulieAnne Behar) Secretary Wyman continued her statewide College Civics tour with a trip east to Pullman to Washington State University. Wyman and state Elections Director Lori Augino (center upper row, above) met with members of WSU’s Panhellenic Council to discuss the importance of voting and being involved with the campus and the needs of the community. Wyman and Augino gave tips on finding great, convenient voter information and how to register online via www.vote.wa.gov and the services…

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Long battle for Top 2 Primary officially over

Long battle for Top 2 Primary officially over

(Photo courtesy of Legislative Support Services, Photo Department) It was a quiet, noncontroversial ending to a 12-year legal, legislative and ballot-box battle to preserve a wide-open primary system for Washington voters. The fight had involved the political parties, the highest court in the land, and even a detour through California. Gov. Jay Inslee signed Senate Bill 5518 to clear the state law books of all references to the much-maligned Pick-a-Party system that voters were required to use in 2004 through…

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Where is Kim? College Civics tour kicks off

Where is Kim? College Civics tour kicks off

(Photo courtesy of Tabatha Blacksmith) Secretary Wyman began her College Civics tour Wednesday with a short trip from the Capitol to South Puget Sound Community College, where she had lunch with student leaders and the college president, Dr. Tim Stokes. She is shown above with some of the student leaders. Wyman continues the tour Thursday with a trip to Pullman to visit Washington State University. During the tour, Wyman is talking with students about the importance of voting and being…

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Lawmakers boost compensation for WA electors

Lawmakers boost compensation for WA electors

For the first time since the horse-and-buggy days of statehood, Washington is boosting the expense allowance for members of the state’s Electoral College, the party activists who cast the state’s electoral votes for the U.S. presidential ticket that wins the state popular vote. The Senate gave strong bipartisan approval on Friday to a House-passed bill that was championed by Secretary of State Kim Wyman and shepherded through the long legislative process by office intern Nate Hauger from Central Washington University….

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April 15 last registration deadline for April election

April 15 last registration deadline for April election

The April 23 special election is fast approaching and mostly features school levy and bond measures. If you’re in one of the 21 counties having an election later this month but you aren’t registered to vote anywhere in Washington, you have until April 15 to register in person if you want to vote in it. Just go to your county elections department to register. The special election affects 35 voting districts. Nearly 371,000 voters (about 9.5 percent of Washington’s active…

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Intern gets ‘up close & personal’ with how a bill becomes law

Intern gets ‘up close & personal’ with how a bill becomes law

Olympia interns are sometimes saddled with the mundane and routine, but Nate Hauger, legislative intern for Secretary of State Kim Wyman, got a rare front-row seat in seeing how a bill becomes law. Hauger, a junior political science major at Central Washington University, jumped at the opportunity to help research and draft a bill for Wyman and then help shepherd it through the long and winding legislative process. House Bill 1639 became the vehicle for the legislation. It would adjust…

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