Voter registration deadline is Friday or Monday or Tuesday

By Evan Smith

The deadline for voters to register online or by mail for the February 13 Shoreline School District special election or for previously registered Washington voters to file a change of address is Friday or Monday or Tuesday depending on how you register – in person, online or by mail.

Monday, January 15, is the official deadline -- 29 days before election day – but that’s the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday; so both the county elections office and the U.S. Postal Service are closed.

That makes Friday, January 13, the effective deadline to register in person at the King County elections office in Renton and the voter registration annex in downtown Seattle, and it allows voters to send mail registration with a Tuesday, Jan. 16, postmark.

Voters who register online still have a Monday, January 15 deadline.

In person registration is open from 8:30am to 4:30pm Thursday and Friday at the King County Elections office at 919 SW Grady Way, Renton, and at the Voter Registration Annex, 500 4th Ave, Room 440, Seattle, Thursday and Friday from 8:30am to 1pm and from 2pm to 4:30pm.

Voters can register online or update existing registrations through midnight Monday, January 15, at this link.

Mail registration forms are available at the elections offices, at local libraries or at some other government offices. Forms also are available online.

Voters who register by mail need to send their forms in time to get January 16, postmarks. That means being aware of pick-up times at local post offices.

New Washington voters can register through February 5, but after Tuesday, January 16, they must register in person at the Snohomish County auditor's office in Everett.

Voters who don’t file a change of address will have ballots sent to the old address and forwarded to the new address.

For voters who move within the Shoreline School District, that simply means a delay of a day or two, but for voters who move from one district to another, it could mean getting the wrong ballot.

For example, a voter who moved from Everett to Lake Forest Park would have his ballot forwarded to the new address, but that ballot would have the two Everett School District measures but not the two Shoreline School District measures.

The Shoreline School District includes Shoreline and Lake Forest Park.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.