Voter pamphlet mailed to Kitsap voters this week

The Kitsap County Voter’s Pamphlet was mailed to all county residents this week in order to help people understand the available choices for the Sept.14 primary.

“This is not a campaign ad,” said Kitsap County Auditor Karen Flynn, “The information here isn’t meant to change peoples’ minds. We want the voters to learn more about the people they’re voting for, based on asking them a couple of questions.”

The generally phrased questions, “What background and experience would you bring to this office?” and the somewhat ungrammatical “If elected, what do you see as the top challenge of this office and how will you address it?” are in some cases replaced by biographical data.

Flynn permitted this, but balked at including a statement from Republican State Auditor candidate Will Baker because it had what she judged to be inappropriate content.

Similar material from Baker ended up prompting an FBI lawsuit. Flynn was the only county auditor in the state to reject Baker’s statement.

Flynn said more than 118,000 pamphlets were printed. Of these, 113,000 were delivered by mail to every house and post office box. Flynn said sending pamphlets to everyone rather than screening for registered voters saved money, since no sorting was required.

The remainder of the pamphlets were distributed between the auditor’s office and other locations such as libraries or post offices.

The deadline for mail in voter registration has already passed, but registration is permitted at the auditor’s office, the county fair and party headquarters until Aug. 31.

Those who did not receive a pamphlet can contact the auditor’s office directly or go online to http://kitsapgov.com/aud/elections/archive/primary/04/prilvp2004.htm.

The county will produce another pamphlet for the November general election.

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