No voters’ guide for primary

Thu., Aug. 26, 2004

Richard Roesler Staff writer

OLYMPIA – The ballots for the Sept. 14 primary election are about to start showing up in voters’ mailboxes.

But if you’re poking around the mailbox for a voters’ guide, you can stop looking. It isn’t coming. Neither Spokane County nor any other county in Eastern Washington is printing a voters’ guide for this primary, despite strong demand.

“It’s been explosive,” said Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton. “People this year have expressed far more interest in a voters’ guide than in my six years in office. We’ve had a lot – a lot – of requests.”

For now, many Eastern Washington counties are trying to steer voters to online guides prepared by political Web sites or newspapers.

State and local officials will, however, publish voters’ guides for the general election, as usual.

During the 2000 primary, the state Legislature allocated money to print voters’ guides. But cash-strapped lawmakers decided against it this spring.

The booklets aren’t cheap. Dalton estimates that it would have cost about $50,000 to print and mail them in Spokane County. The county has never printed a primary guide, she said, but is “moving in that direction.”

Dalton attributes much of this year’s demand to the fact that, under Washington’s new primary system, voters can only select among candidates from a single party. In the past, they could vote for people they were familiar with, regardless of party. Now, they’re faced with a long list of party candidates, many of them political unknowns.

“They’re not comfortable voting for someone they don’t know anything about,” said Dalton.

In Puget Sound, several of the largest counties are printing guides, despite the cost.

“We’ve done it for the last five years,” said Karen Flynn, Kitsap County auditor. She figures that it will cost about $25,000 to reach her county’s 130,000 voters.

“When the state doesn’t publish one, people wonder where the heck is the information on candidates?” said Flynn. “We know that people are expecting the printed pamphlet.”

Pierce County’s spending about $100,000 on its pamphlet, which has 143 pages. One copy is sent to each household, with others available at libraries, schools and fire stations.

“We knew it was going to be big, but I think people are going to read it,” said Auditor Pat McCarthy.

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