PORT ANGELES – If you don’t use it to vote, consider snuggling under it at night.
The Nov. 6 general election ballot Clallam County will mail today has so many candidates and issues that it measures 11 by 17 inches and is printed on both sides.
County Auditor Patty Rosand’s staff will take 43,216 ballots to the Port Angeles post office today.
Rosand is cautioning voters to mark both sides of the sheet.
Ballots in all precincts list candidates on the front and back, some for just one or two races.
Others devote more than half the page to candidates.
The largest number of issues appears on ballots in the Forks area, which has a local proposition to form a metropolitan park district, plus elections for the district’s five commissioners.
That’s on top of six state-wide measures and five proposed Clallam County Charter amendments, a race for county commissioner and municipal and school district elections.
Statewide measures include a constitutional amendment on school district tax levies.
It’s name – Engrossed House Joint Resolution 4204 – doesn’t sound anything like the question it poses: Do voters want to permit approval of public school property tax levies by a simple majority vote rather than a supermajority?
Charter amendment questions include a proposal for instant run-off voting and a proposal to change the elected director of community development post to an appointed position.
Ballots in the all-mail election must be postmarked by Nov. 6 or be delivered to drop boxes by 8 p.m. that night.
In Clallam County, drop boxes are located at: