The Island County voters’ guide is up and running online.
Auditor Sheilah Crider discussed the voters’ guide during a roundtable meeting with other elected officials and department heads Monday morning. The unique thing about it, she said, is that candidates can change their statements and photos daily, if they wish.
“It’s the new blog, truly,” she said.
Crider stopped printing the guide and mailing out the voters’ pamphlets last year in order to save $20,000 in the midst of budget cuts, but continued the guide in cyberspace. Visit www.islandcounty.net, go to the auditor’s page and the voters’ guide is under the “elections” tab.
Crider said she has received the statement in opposition to the property tax levy lid lift, which will be on the primary ballot. She’s waiting to get the statement in support before they are both placed on the online voters’ guide.
The county commissioners appointed two small groups of residents to write the statements. The group writing the “pro” statement is made up of South Whidbey resident Kim Drury; Chuck Schufreider, the president of the Camano Island Democratic Club; and South Whidbey resident Hal Seligson.
The members of the group that wrote the “con” statement were Coupeville resident Gary Wray; Oak Harbor school board member David Sherman; and Kelly Emerson, a Camano Island resident and Republican who’s running against Commissioner John Dean this year.