Precinct Changes Approved

Thu., June 15, 2000

By Lorie Hutson lorieh@spokesman.com (509) 459-5446

FROM VALLEY VOICE page 4 (Saturday, June 17, 2000): Correction A story in Thursday’s Valley Voice incorrectly reported the number of registered voters in the new combined Opportunity voting precinct. There are 618 registered voters in the Opportunity 6 district.

Some Valley voters may be heading to different polling places this September after Spokane County commissioners combined two precincts and split another to meet state elections guidelines.

Commissioners agreed this week to merge two precincts in Opportunity, where the total number of registered voters has fallen below 200. Opportunity 8, which has 195 registered voters, and Opportunity 6, with 80 voters, were combined. The new precinct includes the voters who live roughly south of Sprague Avenue and north of 16th Avenue, between McDonald and Pines roads.

Sherry Bays, assistant elections superintendent for Spokane County, said precincts that fall below 200 active registered voters must be combined or become vote-by-mail precincts.

County elections officials also divided the Liberty Lake area into two smaller precincts.

“Whenever a precinct reaches a registration of 900 then we need to split it … according to state law,” Bays said.

The Liberty Lake 2 precinct will now include voters who live north and east of Valleyway and Lakeside Road and south of Mission between Idaho and Molter roads.

The new Lakeside precinct will serve the voters who live southwest of Valleyway and Lakeside, and east of Molter Road.

Registered voters in precincts that were affected by the changes will receive a notice in the next few weeks to let them know if they need to go to a different polling place, Bays said.

Commissioners also agreed to change the legal descriptions of three Spokane Valley precincts to correct places where the precinct and commissioner district lines did not match. The discrepancies were discovered by the GIS mapping system. The changes do not affect voters.

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