Evan Smith: A meaningless primary ballot in Shoreline

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By Evan Smith

ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

Shoreline voters will get a ballot for the August 16 primary election even though there are no primary contests for the Shoreline City Council, the Shoreline School Board, the Shoreline Fire District, the Shoreline Water District or the Ronald Wastewater District.

Voters will get a ballot with a single item, an election with only one candidate.

It’s the primary for a position on the State Division 1 Court of Appeals.

Unlike other non-partisan elections, elections for the State Supreme Court and courts of appeals appear on both the primary and the general-election ballots even when they have only one or two candidates.

Most Supreme-Court and court-of-appeals elections are in even-numbered years, when the primary ballot is filled with contests for partisan offices, but the District 1 Court of Appeals, which serves King County, is what a State elections official calls an anomaly, with elections in odd-numbered years.

The single-candidate election for the Court of appeals position will appear on ballots throughout King County, but most places in the County, like Lake Forest Park, have at least one meaningful contest on the primary ballot, but a few, like Shoreline, will get the meaningless ballot with a single candidate for a single office.