One man wrote the ‘con’ statements for almost all Thurston school levies. Is that OK?
Edwin J. Pole II. Sound familiar?
You might recognize it from The Olympian: He was on the board of contributors in 2017 and 2018.
Or, if you’re a Thurston County voter, you might recognize the name because it appears behind the “against” statement for almost every school-funding initiative in your voters’ pamphlet for Tuesday’s school levy election.
In the first of five elections this year, every school district in the county is considering a funding measure. A couple are considering two.
Ed Pole’s name appears behind the “against” statement for every measure in the voters’ pamphlet other than Olympia School District, and most of the statements are identical. Why did Pole, a retired engineer who lives in Lacey, write the statements?
“I actually don’t feel good about it,” Pole said in an interview with The Olympian.
Pole said he had only a week to write them, after reading in The Olympian that the Thurston County Auditor’s Office was looking for people to serve on committees that would argue against school district ballot measures in the election.
How ‘for’ and ‘against’ statements work
State law around local voters’ pamphlets states the legislative authority for the “unit of local government” with a measure should appoint committees to prepare arguments for and against the measure. Appointees known to favor the measure to serve on the “for” committee and people known to oppose the measure to the “against” committee.
Thurston County’s administrative rules include that they’re encouraged to formally notify the public they’re searching for people to serve on the committees. If the jurisdiction doesn’t appoint committee members by a prescribed deadline, the county auditor “shall whenever possible make the appointments,” according to state law.
“Once that (deadline) passes, I take action,” Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall said in an interview with The Olympian. Hall’s office publishes press releases and posts notices to the department’s website and social media.
The auditor’s outreach is how it ended up in The Olympian, and, ultimately, how Pole noticed that measures in this election had statements in favor, but not against, he said. He found that suspicious.
“(It) tells me the district is active in seeking for statements, but they’re not active in seeking against statements,” Pole said. “I guess it’s a natural human thing, but I don’t think that’s good. I don’t think that it’s good that there’s not enough interest in the public schools for any citizens to write against statements.”
He volunteered to write for all of the districts, he said, and was the only person to volunteer in every district outside of Olympia and North Thurston.
Alongside his name on most of the statements is the designation “Committee For Ample School Funding,” which he acknowledged is simply a name he chose to refer to himself and not a formal committee that collects funds.
A bill that would prevent this from happening again
Technically, Pole said, he lives in the North Thurston Public Schools. So, should he be allowed to write statements opining on measures he can’t vote on?
Sen. Sam Hunt, who represents the 22nd Legislative District that includes Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and the northern reaches of Thurston County, doesn’t think so.
This could be the last time Pole’s — or anyone else’s — name shows up on statements for multiple districts’ measures.
Hunt pre-filed a bill Jan. 10 that would require all people on the committees who prepare statements for local ballot measures be registered voters in the area voting on the measure.
In a phone interview with The Olympian, Hunt confirmed that he filed the bill in response to the current Thurston County voter pamphlet, even though, according to the Thurston County Auditor’s Office, the pamphlets were mailed to voters Jan. 15.
Hunt said “somebody brought early copies” before the pamphlets were mailed out, and the “against” statements caught Hunt’s attention.
“I think each district or each city or whatever jurisdiction — the people involved, who live in that area — are the ones who should be doing the pro and con stuff, not somebody who isn’t going to be affected by it or taxed by it,” Hunt said.
When The Olympian brought up a similar argument in a conversation with Pole, he said he believes these measures don’t just impact the people living in the district. His “against” statements were aimed at the general issue of “the failure of the legislature to amply fund education,” he said.
But Hunt said it’s important to draw a line, for the sake of consistency.
“I just think we ought to have accountability, and the people who vote on it should be the ones who do the pro and con,” he said.
In a public hearing, Hunt mentioned that, if the bill were to pass, the same person could still write statements for several measures, but a local person would have to put their name on it and take responsibility for it.
Pole, though, sees the bill as a limit on free speech.
“If the politicos and the bureaucrats would do their job properly and seek out people to write ‘against’ statements and advertise well that they are seeking people to write ‘against’ statements, then somebody like me, who sees that there’s no ‘against’ statements anywhere and finds out a week ahead of time before the statements are due, then that might not happen,” Pole said.
The bill was passed to the Senate Rules Committee for a second reading Feb. 3.
Reminder: Ballots are due Tuesday
The deadline to return ballots for the school levy election is 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11. As of Feb. 6, just under 22 percent of ballots had been returned in Thurston County, according to the Auditor’s Office.
Ballots need to be postmarked by Feb. 11 or deposited into a ballot drop box before 8 p.m. that day. Drop box locations are online at ThurstonVotes.org, on the last page of voters’ pamphlets, and included in ballot packets.
Voters can register and get a ballot up until 8 p.m. on Election Day at the Auditor’s Office in the Thurston County Courthouse at 2000 Lakeridge Drive SW, Building 1, Room 118.
This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 1:56 PM.
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