I wanted to start this story with a whole barrage of “what the heck Dwight?” but it turned out to be a great learning experience in the end. There’s a bill currently going through our senate concerning the election of precinct committee officers. You know my ears are going to perk right up on this because I’ve certainly had my share of drama concerning being elected/appointed PCO before. (insert maniacal laugh of Pelz here, not so much anyone else)

I’m not going to bore you with my past ranting on elections of a precinct committee officer and why I had such a huge tizzy about winning yet losing an election. To me, PCOs are like neighborhood watch captains for your immediate area but in a political sense. There’s usually a GOP and a Dem version of the seat in local precincts in Washington state. I want to say that the aforementioned bill is an attempt to make the whole PCO election easier in the end. I do know that the whole thing was brought about not by me and my ugly temper but rather from the supreme court who said the process was unconstitutional based on associational rights of the political parties. Yea, I’d have to agree on that one. Bah.

Anyways I get this letter from Dwight and not only him but Kirby Wilbur and at first I thought I was having severe mental problems. No, they want full blown elections although we’re not going to put any more undue stress on county auditors. Sounds great. I wanna be elected but alas I cannot. Why? No one knows who the heck I am here in Snohomish county and possibly could care less that I’m democrat. Am I even really a democrat? I mean I say I am and my voting record shows as such but what if I’m lying?

That’s alright. I know a county auditor and let’s fire off this email and see what he has to say. My first lesson here is to actually read the email before sending to see if you actually agree with the original composer or not.

I found out that during the 2010 election cycle here in Washington state, a significant amount of the PCOs were appointed and not elected. As you may or may not recall, I myself was an appointed PCO for a while. The difference being that I had to fill a form that my LD (legislative district) and county (Kitsap) chairs had to sign appointing me the seat. Honestly an appointment to me much more honorable in that respect because I knew both those chairs knew I could do the job well. And believe me, it is a complete honor to be elected by a group of neighbors and friends who knew me and knew what I was going to be doing as a PCO representing them.

I have to say I side with the auditors on this though. That’s where I should have read the email. If PCOs are appointed as opposed to elected then maybe we’d have a stronger and more dedicated foundation to work with. I’m not saying we’re lacking that, not in the least. I’m just saying that if it’s an appointment as opposed to an election then we wipe out the whole problem of known GOP trying to fill Dem seats (I’m sure this is an equal opportunity thing, heck I’d love to just come bustin into a 26th GOP meeting and claim I’m a PCO. We all know I couldn’t get that far. They all KNOW I’m lying yet find me mildly amusing). I’ve heard the spin on trying to correct things like that at a county level. It’s not pretty.

Here’s my last thoughts on said bill. I wish that PCOs were appointed rather than elected. So many already are and yea, I know, the elected bunch gets full voting rights and yea, if we go around just hand picking our PCOs then yea, break out the Boss Tweed story. I know this is important to keep our parties as upstanding as can be and we don’t want any more “oops hannie you’re not really elected” letters. I got all that.

Last but not least on the learning curve of this story, I figured out that I am represented by none other than Nick Harper. I wrote him a quick email while researching this story and he responded so quick. Oh yea, please “do pass” this bill sir because it gets rid of that threshold voting crap for PCO elections.

like the passage of other things in this state during this session, um, don’t we have a budget to iron out and isn’t time a wastin on this?

Disclaimer: this story has been through a few edits because I was using/still learning WordPress for iPad.