Election 2015: City Council District 1 candidates’ forum tonight; Helmick signature-challenge update

Two notes this morning in the District 1 (West Seattle/South Park) City Council race:

CANDIDATES’ FORUM TONIGHT: Be at Fauntleroy Church (9140 California SW) tonight for the District 1 forum presented by Westside Interfaith Network and League of Women Voters-Seattle/King County. They describe the format as moderated with some opportunity for audience questions. Doors open at 6 pm, forum at 6:30 pm.

HELMICK SIGNATURES UPDATE: As reported here Friday night, seven months of campaigning might have come to a dead end for Amanda Kay Helmick, who was determined to get onto the ballot via gathering signatures. 1,200 valid signatures are required to make the ballot in lieu of that same number of dollars; Helmick was the only District 1 hopeful going that route. Hours after we covered her taking petitions to the King County Elections office in Renton at noontime Friday, she was notified she’d fallen short by 26. Helmick has since obtained a list of the 147 names that KC Elections had ruled invalid and as of late last night said she had “already found 10 people on the list that are completely unaware and shocked about their status. I have posted the list on my website in case others want to see their status and have it rectified. If someone’s name is on THIS LIST, King County Voter Services has challenged their right to vote. The names were found to be non-registered voters in District 1.” She has posted on her website’s home page what anyone who finds her/himself on that list is asked to do.

WHO’S IN: If anyone has withdrawn or anything else major has changed since filing closed on Friday afternoon, King County Elections will be updating this page at some time later today. But in the meantime, the District 1 race has nine candidates (listed this time in surname-reverse-alphabetical order): Karl Wirsing, Brianna Thomas, Phillip Tavel, Jody Rushmer, Arturo Robles, Chas Redmond, Lisa Herbold, Pavel Goberman, Shannon Braddock.

9 Replies to "Election 2015: City Council District 1 candidates' forum tonight; Helmick signature-challenge update"

  • TNK May 18, 2015 (11:01 am)

    Amanda should be given the chance to rectify this problem. She wasn’t informed of the criteria for inclusion until AFTER she finished her signature gathering. Ridiculous.

    She’s done WAY more actual work to become a viable candidate in this district than almost every other one who simply wrote a check and relied on their benefactors.

    Good luck Amanda!

  • District Rresident May 18, 2015 (11:44 am)

    Just a quick look at the list shows that close to twenty people aren’t even in Seattle. Many of the others have zip codes that show they are not registered in District 1. All of the filing information is on King County’s website and they have an instruction manual that covers this. Amanda Kay did not do her homework.

  • Diane May 18, 2015 (12:31 pm)

    Thanks for the pdf list; that’s VERY helpful; I just checked the list; one of the names is a person I collected for Amanda; this person definitely lives in WS, for over a year; I’m checking with her now

  • ChefJoe May 18, 2015 (12:37 pm)

    True, 7% overage is rather tight for signature gathering, but I’d expect a number of those to be rectified.

    For example, internet-sleuthing suggests several of those with “Signature not matching” may have gone through a name change due to marriage and would be relatively easy to track down.

  • cj May 18, 2015 (12:39 pm)

    How about we try really hard to not elect the same kinds of people who help bring us things like the tunnel bore machine and Shell leases. How many of us just read the paragraph long so called bio and go meh! ok. Seems to me there is a decided effort to have us elect the kinds of people who like their back pockets lined, lets stop electing pets.

    Yes we need a fix on the Amanda issue. It stinks of manipulation.

  • West Seattle since 1979 May 18, 2015 (1:42 pm)

    i wonder if some of the people who signed might moved into the district but neglected to change their address with
    voter registration.

  • Pete May 18, 2015 (1:56 pm)

    Should the last part of this story actually read District 1 not District 9?

    • WSB May 18, 2015 (2:02 pm)

      sorry, typo, fixed.

  • kayo May 18, 2015 (2:15 pm)

    I applaud Amanda for taking this stance and I hope she gets on the ballot.

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