Don’t feel left out because you didn’t get a ballot in the mail for Tuesday’s King Conservation District election.
This election returns to the roots of voting, and actually requires voters to turn out at the polls to cast their ballot for a supervisor for the district, a three-year term.
All registered King County voters – aside from those in Enumclaw, Federal Way, Milton, Pacific and Skykomish – may participate in the election. From our partner The Seattle Times:
The candidates are:Mary Embleton of Seattle, director of Cascade Harvest Coalition; Mara Heiman of Auburn, a farmer, landowner and former real-estate agent; Teri Herrera of Redmond, Realtor; Kirk Prindle of Seattle, ecologist and environmental planner; and Max Prinsen of Renton, former appointed conservation-district-board chair and president of Save Habitat and Diversity of Wetland (SHADOW). For more on the candidates, go to: www.kingcd.org/elect/new_ele_2010-candidates.htm
The nearest polling locations are at the Shoreline King County Library, 345 N.E. 175th St., from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; and The Seattle Public Library, downtown at 1000 Fourth Ave., from 10:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Although only 198 voters participated in the 2008 election, that number skyrocketed last year with 2,757 ballots — but it’s still short more than a million votes from the district’s eligible voters, The Times writes:
The chronically poor turnout belies the importance of an agency created after the Dust Bowl of the 1930s to help farmers, ranchers and tree growers be stewards of their land in ways that produce dependable crops, retain soil and keep creeks and rivers clean.
In recent years, the conservation district has taken on additional duties, which include working with city-dwellers to protect bluffs, and restoring salmon habitat.
