No voter pamphlets in mail

Cutting Costs: County trims money spent on postage; residents can pick up guide, view it online

CHRISTIAN HILL; The Olympian | • Published June 06, 2009

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The campaign season has kicked into high gear after Friday’s filing deadline for local elected offices.

In the coming months, tens of thousands of dollars in contributions will flow into candidates’ coffers, political signs will sprout on lawns and brochures will fill voters’ mailboxes.

In a cost-cutting move, however, one longtime election tradition will be missing, at least for this year: the mailing of the local voter pamphlet to households. Thurston County officials are trying to close a projected $5.4 million mid-year budget shortfall that’s the result of lower-than-expected tax revenues.

Voters now will have to pick up the pamphlet from a local library, city hall or other location, call the Thurston County Auditor’s Office to request a mailed copy or view the pamphlet online.

“They’re still going to have that option,” Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman said. “It’s just not going to be delivered to their doorstep.”

The change has drawn criticism from some local candidates.

Wyman said it’s difficult to justify mailing voter pamphlets at a time when deputy sheriffs and deputy clerks are being laid off. Her office had to slash $411,000 out of its $5.3 million general operating budget.

She said there were conversations about eliminating the printed pamphlet, but it was deemed a priority to preserve it. Wyman said some Washington counties have eliminated the pamphlet or made the information available online only.

Wyman said her office will decide later this year whether the change to the pamphlet will continue in 2010.

The savings to the county will change between the primary and the general election this year.

The cost of producing and mailing the pamphlet is shared by the county, cities, school boards and other public agencies that place issues and candidates on the ballot based on a formula related to the number of registered voters in each of the districts.

The county plans to produce 20,000 copies for both the primary and general elections. In the past, the county has produced 140,000 copies to mail to every household for countywide elections and overseas and military voters and to make available at various locations, said Steve Homan, county elections manager. Production will be done in-house instead of by a vendor because of a new system through the Secretary of State’s Office that makes it easier to produce the voter pamphlet, Wyman said.

The county spent $8,288 on its share of the cost to produce the voter pamphlet during the general election of 2007, which featured a countywide vote on a sales and use tax, Chief Deputy Auditor Ken Raske said. The total cost of producing that pamphlet was more than $40,000. The cost will be less during the upcoming general election, which includes a countywide vote for one commissioner seat, but the amount of the savings isn’t known yet.

In August, the county spent $13,502 on it share to produce the pamphlet for the primary election, Raske said. The cost was higher than in the general election because there was more offices up for election, two commissioner seats and two Superior Court judgeships, and fewer public agencies to share the cost. He estimated that the county will spend in the hundreds of dollars this time around because of reduced printing and mailing, although an exact amount wasn’t known.

He noted that other public agencies that also are dealing with budget issues will benefit from the cost savings.

Some candidates and the president of the League of Women Voters of Thurston County said they fear some voters won’t get election information as easily.

Lacey City Councilman Virgil Clarkson, who is running for a third four-year term, said the lack of immediate availability of the printed voter pamphlet might quell the interest of young people in elections and might make it more difficult for seniors, especially those who are less mobile and computer-literate, to get the election information they need.

He said the change probably will hurt a candidate’s campaign because voters will have less knowledge about a candidate unless they seek it out for themselves.

“I think that if they can at least see the picture and see the name, they’ll have something to relate to once they open the ballot,” said Clarkson, who had a new campaign photo for the pamphlet shot Wednesday.

He said the change will make it difficult for a political newcomer who doesn’t have the name recognition and record of service of an established incumbent.

Janine Gates, a political newcomer running for the Olympia City Council seat held by Jeff Kingsbury, was vehement in her opposition to the change, calling it a “travesty to democracy.”

Gates, a caregiver for seniors, agreed with Clarkson that the elderly will be most affected by the change.

“You’re cutting out huge segments of the community by not having this very important voter pamphlet accessible to everyone,” she said.

Christian Hill: 360-754-5427

chill@theolympian.com.