If you haven’t seen the coverage we published this morning on partner site White Center Now: The White Center Chamber of Commerce hosted the last major pre-primary forum in the 34th District State Senate race. Six of the 11 candidates participated in last night’s forum in a forum presented by the White Center Chamber of Commerce, held outdoors at TommySound studios in South Delridge.

Aaron Garcia moderated; our video above includes the forum in its entirety. Participating, left to right, were:

Sofia Aragon
Shannon Braddock
Joe Nguyen
Lois Schipper
Lem Charleston
Hillary Shaw

Schipper lives in White Center; Aragon lives in Burien; the other four live in West Seattle. All are on your ballot as Democrats except for Shaw, who filed with “no preference” regarding party. They are running to succeed Sen. Sharon Nelson, the Maury Island-residing Democrat who decided not to seek re-election. If you don’t have time to watch the video, see our full report on WCN for toplines of their replies to the questions. And be sure to get your ballot into a mailbox (postage is now prepaid!) or dropbox by the evening of Tuesday, August 7th.

Two West Seattle events before week’s end will each offer a chance to talk with/hear from two city councilmembers:

THURSDAY: The West Seattle Transportation Coalition has just announced that its guests this Thursday night will be Councilmembers Lisa Herbold (WS/South Park District 1) and Teresa Mosqueda (citywide Position 8). (6:30 pm July 26th, Neighborhood House High Point, 6400 Sylvan Way SW)

FRIDAY: Councilmember Herbold’s periodic in-district office hours will include Councilmember Lorena González (citywide Position 9, and a WS resident) for the first hour and a half, according to her weekly update. (2-6:45 pm July 27th, with CM Gonzalez there until 3:30 pm, Southwest Neighborhood Service Center, 2801 SW Thistle)

Both are open to the public – just show up.

The ballots have been mailed and voting has begun for the August 7th primary election. The major local race in our area is for the 34th District State Senate seat. Last night at the DAV Hall in Delridge, five of the 11 candidates answered questions at a forum presented by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Our video begins with introductions from the Chamber and DAV; if you want to jump ahead to the candidates, they start 4 minutes in:

The Chamber said it invited all 11 candidates, with repeated outreach to those who didn’t accept the invitation, and these are the ones who showed up: Joe Nguyen, Shannon Braddock, Sofia Aragon, Lois Schipper, and Lem Charleston. Among the highlights of the forum: State Senator Sharon Nelson, whose decision not to run for re-election set up this wide-open race, was invited to question her would-be successors.

P.S. You have at least one more chance to hear from candidates in this race – the White Center Chamber of Commerce has a forum scheduled for 6 pm next Tuesday (July 24) at Tommy Sound (9409 Delridge Way SW). They have not yet announced which candidates will participate. And remember to get your ballot in a mailbox – prepaid postage! – or dropbox by August 7th.

King County Elections is sending out the ballots for the August 7th primary election. What you’ll be deciding includes narrowing a field of 29 U.S. Senate candidates (including incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell) down to 2 and narrowing the list of 11 34th District State Senate candidates (incumbent Sen. Sharon Nelson is not running for re-election) down to 2. There’s one ballot measure – King County Proposition 1 seeks to renew the property-tax levy for the Automated Fingerprint Identification Service, used in criminal investigations. Get your ballot in a dropbox (West Seattle has one at the High Point Library, 3411 SW Raymond) or mailbox – this is the first election for which ballots have prepaid postage if you use the U.S. Postal Service, so you can mail yours without paying for stamps.

(WSB photo by Patrick Sand)

Those are the four candidates for 34th District State Senator who participated in Thursday’s forum presented by the West Seattle Democratic Women – from left, Shannon Braddock, Joe Nguyen, Sofia Aragon, and Lem Charleston. Here’s our unedited video of the forum, held at the West Seattle YMCA (WSB sponsor) in The Triangle and moderated by WSDW’s Rachel Glass:

11 candidates in all (listed on this King County Elections page) are running for the seat that Sen. Sharon Nelson is giving up; the field will be narrowed to two by the August 7th primary, for which ballots will be mailed July 18th.

The next announced forum in West Seattle is planned by the WS Chamber of Commerce, 6:30 pm July 19th at the Disabled American Veterans hall (4857 Delridge Way SW), with a focus on transportation and business issues; all welcome.

(SPD’s mobile precinct, seen on Alki this evening)

Will a new standard for excessive vehicle noise – distance instead of decibels – eventually lead to more police enforcement and a quieter Alki (and elsewhere)? The changes proposed by West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold – who explained them at length earlier this month – won final council approval this afternoon. Discussion and voting started 35 minutes into today’s Full Council meeting:

You can find the full legislation here, along with one approved amendment – sponsored by citywide Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, asking for quarterly reports on how the law is being implemented, so they could track any concerns or “unintended consequences.” That passed unanimously; the bill itself had one “no” vote, Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who expressed concerns that the change to a subjective enforcement standard could take an unintended toll on people driving noisy old cars, for example, because that’s all they can afford, though she said she agrees that people have a “right to peace and quiet.” So how long until this facilitates enforcement? Herbold said SPD had committed to a “robust” outreach/information campaign before starting. If you have questions, your next chance to ask police will be at tomorrow (Tuesday) night’s West Seattle Crime Prevention Council meeting, 7 pm at the Southwest Precinct (2300 SW Webster).

An expanded version of two expiring Seattle levies will be on your ballot this November. From the announcement of today’s unanimous City Council vote:

The Seattle City Council voted 9-0 to approve Mayor Jenny Durkan’s Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise plan to significantly increase the children in preschool, increase investments in K-12, and expand access to college for Seattle public school graduates through the Seattle Promise College Tuition Program.

With both the 2011 Families & Education Levy and 2014 Seattle Preschool Program Levy set to expire this year, Mayor Durkan proposed that the City renew and combine them through a new Families, Education, Preschool and Promise plan. Homeowners of a median-assessed-value property ($665,000 in 2019) would pay approximately $20 each month. For the first time, qualified low-income seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans with a service-connected disability will be eligible for an exemption. Following Mayor Durkan’s signature, the plan will be placed on the ballot for Seattle voters’ consideration in November 2018. …

… As proposed by Mayor Durkan and amended by the City Council, Mayor Durkan’s plan would make seven years of investments to:

Continue the pilot of the Seattle Preschool program and substantially increase the number of children in quality preschool from 1,500 in 2018-19 to 2,500 in 2025-26;

Increase K-12 and community investments in closing the opportunity gap, increasing teacher diversity, providing support services for students experiencing homelessness, and helping students most at risk of dropping out of school;

Continue our strong support for school-based health programs; and

Expand access to college for Seattle public school graduates through support for the Seattle Promise College Tuition Program, which would serve approximately 1,350 high school students participating in college prep and 875 Seattle Promise college students each year.

As of this fall, pre-levy vote, West Seattle High School joins Chief Sealth International High School and four other schools in what started as the 13th Year Promise program, a free year at South Seattle College (WSB sponsor). If the levy passes, all graduating public-high-school seniors in Seattle would be eligible for two free years at any of the Seattle Colleges, not just SSC. Meantime, for a comparison of the levy cost to taxpayers vs. what they’re paying now, it’s $9.36 more a month for that “median homeowner,” according to Councilmember Lorena González.

(Standing-room crowd at 34th District Democrats just before State Senate endorsement vote)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The endorsement for the open 34th District State Senate seat was the big news from this month’s meeting of the 34th District Democrats, just concluded at The Hall at Fauntleroy.

The result, on a second ballot, was a dual endorsement of Shannon Braddock and Joe Nguyen, who tied at 62 votes each in the runoff; she had led the first round with 57 votes – not enough for a sole endorsement – and he was in second with 39 votes,

We’ll add video highlights later (10:38 pm update – first ones added below), but first, here’s how the nomination process – including more than an hour of vote-counting – unfolded:

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There was anger, chanting, shouting … and public comment on both sides. After a two-plus-hour meeting, seven City Councilmembers voted this afternoon to repeal the head tax they had approved less than a month ago (the “no” votes were Teresa Mosqueda and Kshama Sawant). In case you missed it, the Seattle Channel video is now available. Once public comment ended at about 1:11 into the meeting, West Seattle/South Park Councilmember Lisa Herbold was the first to comment pre-vote, starting at 1:14 in and continuing for seven minutes of near-fury. She refuted the claims that no progress is being made against homelessness, but said that progress is limited because more affordable housing needs to be built. She said the repeal vote “runs counter to my values as a person” but she felt compelled to vote for it because a majority of Seattle citizens believe homelessness has resulted from “government inefficiency.” “People say we are bowing to political pressure, but nothing could be further from the truth,” she insisted, saying a ballot fight between now and November would do more damage. She said she hoped the repeal would be a “temporary setback.” Other councilmembers who commented at length included West Seattle-residing citywide Councilmember Lorena González, who with Herbold co-chaired the task force that came up with the head-tax; starting at 1:38 in the video, saying “all the solutions (to homelessness) require new and additional revenue.” She said, “It gives me no pleasure to have to repeal this law because I think this law was well done” and vowed to “fight for solutions that will not tear this city apart.” She added that this is “a defining moment in the city of Seattle … and not a good one.”

12:49 PM: Just in from the mayor’s office:

Seattle Mayor Jenny A. Durkan and members of the City Council including Council President Bruce A. Harrell, Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez, Councilmember Lisa Herbold, Councilmember Rob Johnson, Councilmember Debora Juarez, and Councilmember Mike O’Brien released the following statement announcing the consideration of legislation to repeal a tax on large businesses to address the homelessness and housing crisis:

“We know that there are strong passions and genuine policy differences between neighbors, businesses, community leaders, and people across our City on how to best address our housing and homelessness crisis. This crisis has been years in the making and there are no easy solutions. The crisis is tied to a range of complex causes, including lack of affordable housing, unmet mental health and substance abuse issues, and systemic racial disparities in our foster care, criminal justice and educational systems.

“In recent months, we worked with a range of businesses, community groups, advocates, and working families to enact a bill that struck the right balance between meaningful progress on our affordability and homelessness crisis while protecting good, family-wage jobs. Over the last few weeks, these conversations and much public dialogue has continued. It is clear that the ordinance will lead to a prolonged, expensive political fight over the next five months that will do nothing to tackle our urgent housing and homelessness crisis. These challenges can only be addressed together as a city, and as importantly, as a state and a region.

“We heard you. This week, the City Council is moving forward with the consideration of legislation to repeal the current tax on large businesses to address the homelessness crisis.

“The City remains committed to building solutions that bring businesses, labor, philanthropy, neighborhoods and communities to the table. Now more than ever, we all must roll up our sleeves and tackle this crisis together. These shared solutions must include a continued focus on moving our most vulnerable from the streets, providing needed services and on building more housing as quickly as possible. The state and region must be full partners and contribute to the solutions, including working for progressive revenue sources. Seattle taxpayers cannot continue to shoulder the majority of costs, and impacts.”

The signature-gathering drive to put the head tax on the ballot had been widely reported to have already gathered more signatures than needed.

1:01 PM: Here’s the announcement of a special council meeting at noon tomorrow to consider the proposed repeal. Here’s the agenda; its accompanying “fiscal note” points out that “… King County Elections will bill the City some additional cost for having the repeal measure on the November 2018 ballot. If the City acts to repeal this legislation without the referendum, these additional election costs will be avoided.”

1:49 PM: Both of the two councilmembers who did not sign on to the repeal plan have commented via Twitter. Citywide Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda issued her statement here, saying she will not support the repeal. Councilmember Kshama Sawant calls the repeal move a “backroom betrayal.”

Last night, we chronicled the City Council’s HALA Mandatory Housing Affordability upzoning public hearing in West Seattle as it happened – you can read toplines from all of the more than 50 speakers in that report here. This morning, our video of the 2+-hour hearing is ready to go, and we’re publishing it separately here since an unfixable technical glitch has cut off commenting on last night’s story.

In the video, you’ll see and hear city staffer Sara Maxana‘s presentation on toplines of the upzoning proposal, followed by each speaker stepping up to the microphone. City Councilmembers did not speak or vote – this was a chance purely for the public to speak. Four were present – District 1’s Lisa Herbold, citywide reps Lorena González (also a West Seattle resident) and Teresa Mosqueda, and Rob Johnson, who chairs the council’s land-use-related committees this year. No date is set yet for the council’s vote; the appeal of the HALA MHA Environmental Impact Statement filed by a citywide coalition of neighborhood groups is scheduled for hearings starting later this month.

Signature-gathering continues for the push to repeal the city “head tax” – we photographed petition circulators at the West Seattle Farmers Market on Sunday and have seen others at various locations. Tonight, perhaps the most unusual spot you’ll find signature-gathering: The weekly trivia game at Talarico’s in The Junction. From host Phil Tavel:

Tonight at Talarico’s trivia, due to popular demand, we will have the “Repeal the Head Tax” petition available for people to sign; even if you aren’t playing trivia … but really, why wouldn’t you come and play? Starts at 8:30, goes until 10. Prizes for top and bottom teams.

The repeal campaign has just over two weeks to gather enough signatures to send the referendum to voters, to ask if they want to keep or toss what the council and mayor approved two weeks ago. Its supporters, meantime, have a “decline to sign” campaign going.

Filing week is over. Here’s who you’ll see on the August primary ballot:

34TH DISTRICT STATE SENATOR – This is the position with no incumbent, since Sen. Sharon Nelson decided not to run again. 11 people have filed:
7 Democrats (Sofia Aragon, Shannon Braddock, Lem Charleston, Lisa Ryan Devereau, Joe Nguyen, Annabel Quintero, Lois Schipper)
2 Republicans (Darla Green, Courtney Lyle)
1 independent (Debi Wagner)
1 “no preference” (Hillary Shaw)

34TH DISTRICT STATE HOUSE – Incumbent Reps. Eileen Cody and Joe Fitzgibbon both filed to run again; neither has an opponent.

7TH DISTRICT U.S. HOUSE: This appears to be an all-West Seattle faceoff, with incumbent U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal the lone Democrat, repeat candidate and anti-immigration advocate Craig Keller the lone Republican, and nobody else filing.

(WSB photo: Rep. Eileen Cody, Sen. Sharon Nelson, Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

It might have been the last time we’d talk to them as your 34th Legislative District trio: State Sen. Sharon Nelson and Reps. Eileen Cody and Joe Fitzgibbon sat down with us for a coffeehouse chat on how the session went, and what’s ahead next time.

We shared a table at C & P Coffee Company (WSB sponsor), where the two House reps had talked with us in January, shortly after the session had begun.

Otherwise, “we don’t get together that often!” they laughed – and certainly there had been big news in the meantime, with Nelson deciding to retire from the Legislature.

So, we asked, what did they see as the biggest successes of this year’s session?

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Here’s the fourth official announcement of candidacy we’ve received for the 34th District seat in the State Senate:

Today, Lem Charleston begins his campaign to bring years of community leadership, activism, involvement, and diversity to 34th Legislative District.

I am running to be your next State Senator because I am convinced we can do better. Senator Sharon Nelson did a great job with the tools she had available to her but we need to progressively move her legacy to the next level by doing more in and for our communities here in the 34th district.

I love having a family. I love being a devoted husband and father. I’m a proud union member, a community member, an associate chaplain with Seattle Police Department (SPD). I served my country in the United States Marine Corps. I don’t look like a regular politician because I am not a career politician. I have different experiences than some politicians. I have been working in aerospace for over 30 years. I worked in Everett for 25 years and I am now in Renton and a proud member of District 751 of the International Association of Machinists. I was a Union Steward in the International Association of Machinists for 20 years. I have been a minister since 1992 and was the Pastor at the United House of Prayer For All People, Seattle, WA until 2008. I had a pretty good career as a volunteer soccer coach in the West Seattle Soccer Club (WSSC) as well.

Right now there are ZERO African Americans in the State Senate and the 34th Legislative District has never elected a person of color. It’s time for realistic diversity. We have to work together and not just believe in the creed of this district, but bring that creed to fruition.

I’m running be your next State Senator because I believe we can do better because our community members and our city and State needs us to do better.

We have traffic problems, classroom overcrowding problems, bike lane sharing problems. We also have one of the highest homelessness rates in the nation. We have obscene housing prices, and the property taxes that go with them. There is gun violence that is leaving our communities with grief, anger, and fear like never before. We can’t remedy all these things in one day, but working together, looking at our problems and facing them one by one, for what they are, I am confident we will find a remedy to each and every one of them.

Housing: The 34th district is one that has millionaires on the beach on the west end, and people living on the streets on the east end of this district. We can do better. We need to find solutions that cure that disparity. Seattleites and many people throughout the region are working hard to solve this problem, and I’ll work hard at the state level to find solutions to these issues. Housing is becoming a state issue. The Stranger reported in 2017 that, ”The Seattle area is the ninth fastest-growing metro in the nation, gaining about 1,100 residents per week according to population estimates issued this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau.” It’s not my goal to simply have another food bank for the homeless but how about giving them the tools to start a business or get a job so they can get off the streets and be able to provide adequately for their families.

Education: Seattle needs stronger educational resources and we need our schools to be completely funded. The levy’s just don’t get the job done anymore. I’ll work to make sure they have the resources they need to serve all of our community members. A strong community that is built by the people who serve in it, live in it, and love it is bound to prosper. It is my goal to not only expose the achievement gap between white students and students of color as this is important, but to also partner with the appropriate people everywhere reasonable to remedy this problem.

Revenue: We need to stop giving tax breaks to huge corporations with no way to get that money back if they don’t follow through on the deal. And yes, we need to fix our broken and regressive tax system. Taxing big corporations in a fair and equitable manner in a way that will not cost the middle class living wage jobs. We all must research and study to find economic solutions to remedy our concerns so that we build a stable and collective balance, with these corporations and create income equality here in Seattle.

I believe we can do better because I have lived here in the 34th district for over twenty-one years. As a soccer coach, I watched the parents of kids playing soccer teach their kids how to win and how to lose, all with dignity and fairness. Those lessons we learn as children are the ones we need to apply as adults we need to understand our problems and wisely find remedies for them.

Lem Charleston was born in Seattle and has lived in West Seattle for over 21 years. He’s been a pastor and a minister in the community for sixteen years, a volunteer soccer coach for six years, and is currently serving as a volunteer assistant Seattle Police Department chaplain for the past twelve years. He’s been married for 21 years and he and his wife have two children attending West Seattle Schools.

The three candidates from whom we previously received announcements are Shannon Braddock, Joe Nguyen, and Lois Schipper. Official filing week is under way through Friday; here’s who’s turned in paperwork so far. The seat is open because Sen. Sharon Nelson has announced she is not running for re-election.

(Seattle Channel video of this afternoon’s council meeting – public comment at 17:58, tax items at 59:08)

Ample citywide coverage of the City Council’s final vote on the “head tax” this afternoon – but we’re noting it here anyway. For one, the two West Seattle-residing councilmembers – District 1’s Lisa Herbold and citywide Position 9’s Lorena González – led the task force that brought the concept to the council in the first place. From the official news release, details on the compromise that passed in a 9-0 vote:

… The amended proposal establishes an annual tax of $275 per full-time employee on the City’s largest businesses, those with revenues of more than $20 million (about 3% of all businesses). The measure would generate an estimated $47 million annually and end on December 31, 2023.

… Selected highlights of the amended ordinance include:

*Exempt Seattle’s small and medium-sized businesses, only applying to those with at least $20 million or more annually in taxable gross receipts as measured under the City’s existing Business & Occupation tax;

*Apply only to the City’s approximately 585 largest businesses, or approximately 3% of all Seattle businesses;

*Require large businesses to pay $275 per full-time equivalent employee working 1,920 hours per year (or about $0.14 per hour);

*Include an evaluation of the economic impacts, and an independent oversight committee; and,

*Exempt healthcare providers that provide at least 25% of their services to patients covered by Medicare and Medicaid as well as all hospitals. …

You can read the amended plan here. Here’s some of what’s happened in the hours since the council vote:

*Mayor Durkan said, “I plan to sign this bill” (here’s video of her news conference; here’s her statement)

*Amazon said it’s “disappointed” and “apprehensive” (GeekWire.com coverage)

The tax starts in January. But first, as was noted in Q&A at Durkan’s news conference, a spending plan has to be finalized for the money it will raise.

Though five people participated in this past Wednesday’s State Senate candidates’ forum at the 34th District Democrats‘ meeting, we had only received official candidacy announcements from two. Now we have a third:

Public Health Nurse Lois Schipper formally announced she is running for the Washington State Senate. Schipper is a lifelong Democrat.

Schipper said, “Sunday is Mother’s Day. I want to serve in the Washington State Senate because I want to use my decades of experience as a public health nurse to give every mother the gift they most want on Mother’s Day – safe and healthy children.”

This Mother’s Day, Schipper reflects that her priorities in Olympia will always revolve around children and families: fully funding K-12 education, with an emphasis on special education and closing the achievement gap for low income kids and kids from communities of color; fighting the NRA to ban assault weapons and high-capacity clips; and cleaning up our upside-down tax system. “My work in our community has let me see that too many families are struggling,” says Schipper. “I want to take my expertise to Olympia to craft working solutions to these issues.”

Throughout her career, Schipper has led the fight to solve these needs and challenges, managing the King County Public Health Center that serves White Center and Burien. Earlier, Schipper was the first nurse in the 1980s supporting HIV-positive mothers and babies. Now, at Seattle Children’s Hospital, she leads a team helping non-English speaking families navigate the health care system.

“I think what I would bring to Olympia is my on-the-ground experience here in the 34th and in King County; working in the community, implementing programs, looking at what works, building teams across agencies,” said Schipper. “That’s the kind of work that’s necessary. I know how to bring diverse people – who often disagree – together to solve problems.”

Lois Schipper has deep ties to White Center – one of the most economically disadvantaged areas of King County. “Schipper deeply cares about underserved communities of color” according to Sili Savusa, executive director of the White Center Community Development Association. “Schipper understands what underserved communities need and she will deliver results in the legislature!”

In addition, Schipper served as PTSA president in both the Seattle and Highline School Districts, successfully leading school levy campaigns and serving as a PTSA legislative representative in Olympia.

John Welch, the former superintendent of the Highline School District, saw Lois’s efforts first-hand. “Lois got results through collaboration, perseverance and commitment,” says Welch, “I can’t imagine a more qualified and dedicated person to represent the 34th District.”

Schipper, who was a nurse in the Peace Corps, received her nursing degree from the Ohio State University and earned a Master’s Degree in Public Health from the University of Minnesota.

Schipper has been married to Mark Ufkes for 27 years and they have two sons who are both Eagle Scouts.

In Schipper’s own words, “As a public health nurse, I have dedicated my 30-year nursing career helping families and children live better lives. I want to bring my experience as a children’s health expert to represent you and your family in the State Senate in Olympia. The safety and health of children and families will always come first!”

The weeklong official filing period opens tomorrow. The two candidates from whom we previously received announcements are Shannon Braddock and Joe Nguyen. The seat is open because Sen. Sharon Nelson has announced she is not running for re-election.

A month and a half after 34th District State Senator Sharon Nelson announced she wouldn’t run for re-election, campaign season launched in earnest last night as five hopefuls appeared at the first major candidates’ forum. It made up the bulk of last night’s monthly 34th District Democrats meeting. From left are Lois Schipper, Sofia Aragon, Lem Charleston, Shannon Braddock, and Joe Nguyen. Topics included tax reform, health care, education funding, gun safety, and more. No endorsement vote yet; next week is the official filing week, so we’ll know then who else, if anyone, is jumping into the race.

Seven years after our state went to voting by mail, our county is removing the need for you to buy a stamp for your ballot. The announcement from the King County Council this afternoon:

No Stamp? No Problem! The Metropolitan King County Council today approved legislation allowing the Department of Elections to send voters postage-paid envelopes to return their ballots in this year’s primary and general elections.

“Increasing accessibility to free and fair democratic elections is central to all of our civic institutions,” Said Councilmember Dave Upthegrove, Chair of the Council’s Budget Committee and prime sponsor of the legislation. “This measure puts a ballot box at the end of every driveway, and I’m excited to be a part of its passage.”

“Voting is the foundation of our democracy. By eliminating the postage ‘poll tax’, King County is taking an important step to dismantle a barrier that keeps some from exercising their right to vote,” said Councilmember Rod Dembowski, co-sponsor of the ordinance.

Washington became a vote-by-mail state in 2011. While the Council and King County Elections worked to increase the number of ballot drop boxes available to voters throughout the county, approximately half of the ballots received are still sent by mail. Prior to today’s action all voters were personally required to place postage on their ballot.

In prior elections, when a voter forgot to place on stamp on a ballot, some post offices would send the ballot to King County regardless, but would charge the county $1.70—more than three times the current postage rate. Other post offices would not forward the ballot at all.

“We should be doing everything in our power to improve access to democracy countywide and I am confident that prepaid postage will go a long way towards doing just that by breaking down barriers to participation,” said Councilmember Jeanne Kohl-Welles, co-sponsor of the ordinance. “I’m confident that our action today will result in prepaid postage on ballots being implemented statewide.”

“Prepaid postage has been proven to increase voting in a cost-effective way,” Said King County Council Vice Chair Claudia Balducci. “I commend our King County Elections Director for continually looking for ways to improve voter participation in our elections, which is so fundamental to our democratic form of self-government.”

The measure is widely expected to increase voter access and participation. Elections conducted a pilot project this winter, sending 65,000 voters in Shoreline and Maple Valley prepaid return envelopes. The percentage of total ballots returned by mail during the pilot was 74-percent. This was a vast increase compared to 43-percent participation in the 2016 General Election.

The legislation now allows election officials to send prepaid return envelopes to all voters, but with the US Postal Service charging King County a rate of 50 cents for those returned by mail. Wise and county election officials estimate a 10 percent increase in the number of ballots returned by mail rather than drop boxes with prepaid postage.

The legislation passed Council with a 7-2 vote. In support of the measure were Councilmembers Upthegrove, Dembowski, Kohl-Welles, Balducci, Gossett, McDermott and von Reichbauer. Councilmembers Dunn and Lambert voted in opposition.

Ours would be the first in the state to provide postage-paid ballot envelopes.