ELECTION 2025: Voted yet?

Tuesday is when voting ends in the April 22 special election – and you have one measure to vote on, King County Proposition 1, renewal of the levy that pays for the Regional Automated Fingerprint Identification System. This goes back almost 40 years, first approved by King County voters in 1986. The renewal is for seven years starting at 2.75 cents (or less) per thousand dollars of property valuation; that’s lower than the 3.5 cents with which the previous renewal, approved in 2018, began (dropping to 2.9 cents by last year). So what is this used for? Not just criminal-justice matters, according to the FAQ on its website. It’s the only countywide measure on Tuesday’s ballot, but five school and special-purpose districts have measures to decide too. As usual, your deadline for turning in your ballot is 8 pm Tuesday at a King County Elections dropbox or getting it to the US Postal Service early enough to ensure it’ll be postmarked no later than Tuesday.

Hmmm April 20, 2025 (7:25 pm)

First sentence doesn’t parse. Election ends Tuesday, so not sure what the next bit of the sentence is about. I appreciate the work of the WSB so I know you will fix this up.

WSB April 20, 2025 (7:45 pm)

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Thank you, sorry, fixed.

anonyme April 21, 2025 (5:54 am)

Just like the February special election, I don’t think there’s anything on this ballot that could not have waited for the November general election. According to King County Elections, each special election costs taxpayers 5 to 6 million dollars. That means that so far this year 10-12 million taxpayer dollars that could have gone to essential services, or even to the items on the special elections ballots, is instead being completely wasted on special elections. There needs to be a curb placed on this practice, and elections should be held once per year with the exception of a true emergency.

WS Resident April 21, 2025 (5:44 pm)

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Had no clue. Is what you wrote really true?10 million buys a lot of food for food shelters to help the food insecure…
Anonymous April 21, 2025 (10:02 pm)

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Totally agree. What a waste of tax dollars- since when is fingerprint proposal an emergency? How do we give feedback ?
- WSB April 21, 2025 (10:14 pm)
  
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  A special election is not an “emergency.” The term “special” is really something of a misnomer, as there are elections in February and April almost every year. But ultimately, the King County Council voted to send it to voters, so you can contact them – Teresa Mosqueda is this area’s councilmember – contact info for all: https://kingcounty.gov/en/dept/council/governance-leadership/county-council/councilmembers-districts