The week of April 26th 2021 was historic. It was the last levy that didn’t require a voter pamphlet. Until now school districts (and other entities) could run special elections but were NOT required to provide pro and con statements in writing with the ballot. With this change all special elections will require a written statement on yes and no votes.
This change will increase the cost of a special election due to the voter pamphlet requirement. It will also cause election departments to search out people to write the pro and con statements. Until now it’s sometimes been hard to find people to write the No position. Going forward if someone in the local boundaries won’t write the No position the election department may need to find someone outside to write it (which has not been previously allowed).
Take a look at this link: http://www.schooldataproject.com/report_levies_20210427
In the link is information from the levies ran in Feb/Apr 2021. Take the time to look at the table.
School districts across the state have misused these “special” elections in February and April. They are the lowest voter turnout elections. School districts don’t want a large turnout. So in a big way this practice in WA State has been a form of voter suppression. They (school districts) should be ashamed of themselves.
School districts (and Fire Districts, and Park&Rec Districts and any others with measures on the ballots) will have to try a little harder than they have in the past to find con committee writers.
And if they don’t, county auditors will have to take reasonable steps to find volunteers willing to do their civic duty and to at least act as devil’s advocates to help voters with considering both sides of the issues before voting.
This is a great step forward for our state in our view.
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