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At one of the first in-person election events of the season, Whatcom County voters in Deming were treated to a sampling of local, state and federal candidates the evening of July 24.
The candidate’s forum, hosted by South Fork Valley Community Association and the Whatcom Community Foundation at Mt. Baker Senior High, included an assortment of hopefuls that will be in both the primary and general election.
First, county auditor Stacy Henthorn gave a presentation outlining the transparent, secure election system in Whatcom County. Henthorn’s office is providing tours to the public from July 30 to Aug. 2 that provide a detailed look at the security measures in place in all aspects of ballot processing. (Pre-registration is required — reserve a spot by emailing Kellye Conner at kconner@co.whatcom.wa.us.)
Chief deputy auditor Amy Grasher provided an explainer and some history of the charter review commission, which convenes every 10 years. This general election, voters will choose three commissioners from each of the five county council districts, and the 15-person commission will spend the next year evaluating the county charter and proposing amendments for council approval. There are currently 46 candidates running.
Although voters won’t choose charter review commissioners until November, those in attendance on Wednesday night had a chance to meet five of the candidates running in county council district 3, East Whatcom. Jennifer Wright, Doug Chadwick, Roland Middleton, John Westerfield and Leaf Schumann discussed some possible amendments to the structure and functioning of local government, such as ranked choice voting and rural vs. urban representation on the county council. (CDN will do a deep dive on the charter review commission closer to the general election.)
The evening featured a smattering of other candidates, like Atul Deshmane, running for reelection as the District 2 commissioner of the Whatcom County Public Utility District, District 42 Position 1 representative candidate Ray Pelletti, District 42 Position 2 incumbent Rep. Joe Timmons, and state Rep. Alex Ramel, who is running unopposed for reelection in District 40. Even state candidates were in attendance: state Sen. Manka Dhingra, who is running for attorney general, and Edwin Stickle and Daniel Miller, both running for Congress, made appearances to speak to East Whatcom voters. A few candidates, like Semi Bird (governor), Kevin Van De Wege (commissioner of public lands) and Bob Ferguson (governor) sent proxies to speak on their behalf.
“We need more conversations like this one, small community discussions in our democracy makes us all better,” said Rep. Ramel.
The forum was recorded for broadcast on KVAZ Radio, and South Fork Valley Community Association hopes to post some video recordings online as well. Ballots have been mailed for the primary election and Aug. 6 is the Election Day.
SFVCA is hosting two more voter awareness events: a candidate meet-and-greet at Summerfest on Aug. 17 and another forum on Oct. 19.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
