State elections chief asks governor to cancel April 28 election to protect workers

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman said Wednesday she has asked Gov. Jay Inslee to cancel the April 28 special election to protect the health of elections workers during the novel coronavirus outbreak.

“What’s invisible to most voters is that our county election officials rely on a lot of people to conduct an election. Counties and vendors require staff to work in close quarters to support an election and the age of most of these employees is 60 years old or older — the very folks we are most worried about protecting during the pandemic,” Wyman said.

Wyman said the Secretary of State’s office began to think about the need to cancel the April 28 special election while implementing social distancing for the March 10 presidential primary.

“When you look at large counties like King County or Pierce County where you have maybe 50 to 100 part-time workers who are coming in to help you process ballots, it’s very difficult in the close quarters that they work in to be able to give a 6-foot space around every worker,” she said.

Local governments that plan to run their election on April 28 have two other options -- Aug. 4 or Nov. 3, Wyman said.

So far, 12 of the 36 local governments have canceled their April 28 elections due to the risks of COVID-19. They include Thurston County, which had planned to ask voters to raise property taxes to pay for a new county courthouse and office complex, and the Ferndale School District in Whatcom County that had planned to seek voter approval for a levy.

An Inslee spokesperson said Wednesday that the governor will discuss Wyman’s request with his advisers, “but we have nothing to add at this time.”

This story was originally published March 19, 2020 at 5:45 AM.