Snohomish County mailed ballots in early October. If yours hasn't arrived, visit the elections office at 3000 Rockefeller for a replacement. In-person registration runs through 8 pm on November 3. Sign and date the return envelope. Track your ballot online at VoteWA.gov
Don't Use USPS To Mail Your Ballot
In the August primary, our analysis found a ballot returned by mail was almost twelve times more likely to be rejected than one placed in a drop box. We strongly urge voters to use the dropboxes available throughout Everett.
- Snohomish County Elections Office, 3000 Rockefeller Ave (safest, wall box on first floor)
- Everett Courthouse Campus, Rockefeller Ave and Wall St
- Everett Community College, 1001 North Broadway (drive-up)
- Everett Mall, 1402 SE Everett Mall Way (drive-up)
- Evergreen Branch Library, 9512 Evergreen Way (drive-up)
- McCollum Park and Ride, 600 128th St SE (drive-up)
TL;DR:
Statewide Measures: No on IP26-645, IL26-001, and IL26-638.
County Charter: No on all five propositions.
Everett Charter: Approve 261, 263, 265. Reject 262 and 264.
Congress, 2nd District: Rick Larsen.
Legislature, 38th District: June Robinson for Senate, Julio Cortes for Position 1, Mary Fosse for Position 2.
Legislature, 21st District: Marko Liias, Strom Peterson, Lillian Ortiz-Self.
Legislature, 44th District: John Lovick, Brandy Donaghy, April Berg.
Supreme Court: Colleen Melody, Jaime Michelle Hawk, Ian Birk, Theo Angelis, Debra Stephens.
PUD Commissioner, District 1: Janet St Clair.
Unopposed and fine by us: Linda Coburn for the Court of Appeals, Jason Cummings for Prosecuting Attorney, Anthony Howard and Jennifer Millett for Everett District Court.
Three Initiatives By One Millionaire Donor
Brian Heywood is a Mercer Island hedge fund manager and the founder and largest donor of Let's Go Washington, an arm of conservative Project 42. All three statewide measures on the ballot were launched by his organization. We have written about two of them at length, Brian Heywood's Initiative Wants to Inspect Your Daughter's Body in June and November's Parental Rights Initiative Is a Danger to Kids in September. The third is what we describe as the biggest financial threat to Washington residents.
IP26-645 would repeal the 9.9 percent tax on individual income over $1 million the legislature passed this year, set to start in 2028. The Office of Financial Management estimates a repeal would cost the state $11.4 billion through 2031, almost all of it from the general fund that pays for public schools, colleges, and health care, with five percent earmarked for childcare. The same fiscal statement says the Department of Revenue was staffing up to handle about 30,000 millionaire taxpayers, including Heywood. The law that created the tax also ended sales tax on diapers and over-the-counter drugs and expanded the Working Families Tax Credit; the initiative leaves those in place while removing the money that funds them. We're voting no.
Five County Charter Changes
Every ten years, a fifteen-member commission reviews the Snohomish County Charter. Project 42, a conservative 501(c)(4) says they recruited eleven of the fifteen commissioners, which launched its five ballot measures before holding a single public hearing, gave the public no way to submit proposals directly, scheduled its hearings at the last minute, and has posted no record of public testimony. Four of the fifteen commissioners signed a dissent letter against the final package. We're voting against every charter proposition.
Proposition 1 tells the county to put "foundational" services first in the budget without defining what that means. We believe the vague wording invites lawsuits from conservatives who seek to defund every aspect of county life, from parks to housing to human services.
Proposition 2 creates two reserve funds and requires four of five council votes to spend the second one. We believe this is yet another attempt to prevent funds being spent on services that predominantly assist the poorest residents in Washington.
Proposition 3 removes party labels from the County Council, Executive, and Prosecutor. We believe it will allow Project 42's hand-selected conservatives to slip under the radar, posing as "neutral" candidates, intentionally confusing voters.
Proposition 4 would force the county to abandon its $15 million financial system overhaul in order to post financial records online "where reasonably practicable" with no deadline and no definition of practicable. We believe this is a data fishing expedition from Project 42.
Proposition 5 requires four of five council votes for any tax the council can impose without a public vote. We believe this is an attempt by Project 42 - to protect the wealthy from any taxes that would affect them - by wrapping them up in red tape forever.
Everett's Charter
Every ten years, Everett's charter is reviewed, and this year five changes are proposed. No one filed an argument against any of them, but we're voting against two of them.
Proposition 261 requires candidates for mayor and city council to have lived and been registered to vote in the city, and their district, for one year before running for office, and bars elected officials from holding a second elected office at the same time. Approve.
Proposition 262 cuts the required number of council meetings from 48 per year to 36. Fewer meetings means fewer opportunities for public comment. This change eliminates twelve meetings each year and gives residents nothing in return. Reject.
Proposition 263 limits civil service hiring rules to police and fire, which is what state law requires, and lets the city fill other positions as they open instead of from eligibility lists which can be up to three years old. Union contracts still apply. Approve.
Proposition 264 sets new signature requirements for any initiative, adds a ten-day window to fix bad signatures, and requires a fiscal analysis for voters. The explanatory statement doesn't mention that this doubles the signature bar (5% to 10%) for the cheapest path to a citizen initiative. Reject.
Proposition 265 lets the city post legal notices on its website instead of burying them in a newspaper. The Herald will lose that revenue, but the charter shouldn't require the city to buy print ads to tell residents what it's doing. Approve.
The Courts
Position 1 - Colleen Melody ran the Attorney General's Civil Rights Division and won the case against the first Trump administration's Muslim ban. She is endorsed by every other sitting justice. Her opponent is a tax attorney at a corporate law firm. Melody.
Position 3 - This is an open seat between two Superior Court judges. Jaime Michelle Hawk was the first ACLU of Washington attorney to become a judge and has never had a trial overturned for legal error. Hawk.
Position 4 - Ian Birk is endorsed by Attorney General Nick Brown, six current justices, and the State Labor Council. Sean O'Donnell is a King County judge endorsed by the Farm Bureau and the Council of Police and Sheriffs. Birk.
Position 5 - Theo Angelis sued the federal government when it made children as young as four appear in immigration court without lawyers, and the government agreed to pay for the lawyers. His opponent is a retired trial judge from Federal Way. Angelis.
Position 7 - Debra Stephens is the Chief Justice and the first woman from Eastern Washington on the court. Her opponent, a tax attorney, says this election "is a choice whether to retain the current justices." We are choosing to retain her. Stephens.
Linda Coburn is unopposed for the Court of Appeals. Jason Cummings is unopposed for Prosecuting Attorney. Anthony Howard and Jennifer Millett are unopposed for Everett District Court. All four have our vote.
The PUD
Sid Logan has been a PUD commissioner since 2017 and says rates held flat in five of his nine years. He is endorsed by Rick Larsen, County Executive Dave Somers, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin, and IBEW Local 77. Janet St Clair served eight years as an Island County commissioner and is endorsed by June Robinson, Strom Peterson, April Berg, Washington Conservation Action, and the Snohomish County Democrats. St Clair's statement is the only one of the two that treats climate change as a utility problem rather than a side note. We're voting for St Clair.