OLYMPIA — Bond and levy elections in several jurisdictions in nine counties will move ahead at the end of April after Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee declined a request by Secretary of State Kim Wyman and county elections officials to cancel or postpone the elections amid concerns about COVID-19.
Originally, more than 30 jurisdictions in 18 counties were set to hold special elections on April 28. As of Friday, 19 jurisdictions had canceled due to coronavirus concerns, leaving just nine counties set to oversee elections April 28.
In a letter sent last week, county auditors from across the state joined Wyman, a Republican, in asking Inslee to cancel the elections, citing a host of concerns ranging from a potential reduction of election staff and postal staff, disruptions with vendors who support election operations, and concerns about the health of elections workers handling ballots. Because Washington is a vote-by-mail state, ballots to overseas and military voters will be sent out this weekend, and the remainder of the ballots will be sent to voters the week of April 6.
Inslee’s Chief of Staff David Postman said because some of the counties had already started spending money to prepare for the election, the governor’s office determined “the right thing to do was to move to work with the secretary of state’s office to mitigate impacts on the auditors.”