King County Charter Amendment Number 1:
Even-numbered election years for certain county offices.
Currently, elections for King County Assessor,
councilmembers, elections director,
and executive are held in odd-numbered years.
If Charter Amendment Number 1 is approved,
elections for these offices would move
to even-numbered years.
Candidates running for these offices in 2023 and 2025
would be elected to three-year terms.
Elections for four-year terms would resume in 2026 and 2028.
-Hi. I'm King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay.
This fall, voters in King County
have an opportunity to make future county elections simpler
and far more inclusive by voting yes
on King County Charter Amendment 1.
If approved, Charter Amendment 1
would move elections for King County public officials
from odd years to even years.
In other words, the positions of executive,
assessor, elections director,
and county council would move from odd years like 2019
to even years like 2020,
which is when we already elect our prosecuting attorney
and our superior court judges.
Passage of Charter Amendment 1 will mean that starting in 2026
we'll elect all our important county officials in years
which see much, much higher voter turnout.
This will result in many more voters
selecting our future leaders.
Data indicates up to twice as many voters
would turn out on even-year elections.
Research also indicates that if we adopt this amendment
we'll have more diverse participation,
especially from young voters, working-class voters,
voters of color, and renters.
And because the media's political coverage
and community civic awareness are much stronger in even years,
this amendment will let future county candidates
run when more people are paying attention,
which will be good for their campaigns and for democracy.
I hope you'll join me,
the League of Women Voters, Washington Bus,
the Northwest Progressive Institute, Sightline,
the Washington Community Alliance,
and a growing coalition of advocates in voting
yes on King County Charter Amendment 1
by Tuesday, November 8 at 8 PM.
To learn more, please visit yeskingcharter1.org.
That's yeskingcharter1.org. Thank you for being a voter.
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