New voter cards in the mail
Most Spokane County voters will get cards in the mail updating their voter information.
County elections officials said they've mailed out 195,000 cards listing new precinct information, which is roughly three out of four voters in the county.
The changes were prompted by the redistricting, which happens once very 10 years after a national census. Spokane County remains in the 5th Congressional District, but the lines for all of the legislative districts locate completely or partially in the county were redrawn.
In an effort to save some money, the county is sending cards only to voters whose precinct information changed. The Valley's 4th Legislative District saw the least change, and many precincts in that district remain the same, so those voters won't be getting new cards. But the 3rd, 6th, 7th and 9th districts all had significant changes that effect of their voters.
A bit of voting info trivia of the political geeks: Precincts in Spokane County have a four-digit number that helps explain where that voting sector is. The first digit is the legislative district, so all county precincts start with either 3, 4, 6, 7 or 9.
The second digit tells whether the voter lives inside or outside an incorporated area like a city or town. A zero for the second digit means the precinct is in an unincorporated area; another digit means its a city or town. Most of the cities and towns are in a single legislative district, so a precinct that starts 44 is the City of Spokane Valley and one that starts 43 is Liberty Lake. Airway Heights precincts start 64 and Cheney precincts 67. Spokane city precincts are a bit trickier because there are three Lege districts that have pieces of the city, and the second digit is either 1, 2 or 3, to tell you which City Council district the precinct is in. Northeast is 1, South is 2 and Northwest is 3.