First, let me use this opportunity to promote the first of six election videos in the race for state House to replace state Rep. John Ahern. Look for the other videos featuring candidates Democrat Dennis Dellwo and Republican Jeff Holy throughout the week.

Now on to some news ....

The last day to register to vote in time to participate in the November election was substantially slower than expected in Spokane County.

About 400 people came to the Spokane County elections office to register on Monday. That’s down from about 1,700 people who registered on the last day in 2008 – the year of the previous presidential election.

But County Auditor Vicky Dalton doesn’t believe the decline is a sign of weakening participation. There are just fewer procrastinators this year, she said.

Each of the last three days last week between 100 and 200 people registered. Many also took advantage of online registration, which closed Oct. 8 and wasn’t available in 2008. About 11,000 people have registered to vote in Spokane County since Sept. 1, pushing the number of Spokane County’s registered voters to about 281,000. There were only about 255,000 registered voters in Spokane County four years ago.

“This is a record number of registered voters for Spokane County,” she said.

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