Council adopts Dembowski ordinance giving public time to review annual proposed precinct alterations

September 27, 2013

Summary

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The Metropolitan King County Council gave its unanimous support to an ordinance requiring the Director of King County Elections to make the annual proposed precinct alterations map available to the public and to political parties 10 days prior to its transmittal to the County Council.

Required by both the State and County laws, the King County Department of Elections annually adjusts precinct boundaries in accordance with recent annexations and population changes. The proposed adjustments are required to be transmitted to the King County Council for review, 30 days prior to the May 1 deadline for final approval.

Shortly after taking office, Councilmember Rod Dembowski learned of concerns regarding a lack of adequate time to review and comment on the proposed annual precinct map alterations.

Working with King County Director of Elections Sherril Huff, Dembowski sponsored legislation requiring that the public and political parties have a 10-day period to review the proposed annual precinct changes, before transmittal to the King County Council. The 10-day review period will allow sufficient time for voters and political parties to provide comments on the proposed changes.

“Increasing the transparency and engaging the public in the work we do at the County is paramount,” said Dembowski. “I want to thank Director Huff for her help on this important legislation, as we both believe this ordinance will allow for greater public engagement in our elections process.”
“I appreciate the ability to work with Councilmember Dembowski on this issue and I feel the ordinance will address concerns we share about public access to information,” said Huff.

The legislation—2013-0340—was adopted by the Council at its September 9 meeting.