🗳️ Ballot Box 07/17/26

As you read this, thousands of ballots are being delivered to mailboxes across Whatcom and Skagit counties. I mean your physical mailbox — that thing you check occasionally that's stuffed with bills and Safeway coupons and, hopefully, newspapers.

Like I mentioned a few months ago, this year's August primary features a bevy of local races in both our dear counties, from Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney to Skagit County Commission and Auditor. There are a few legislative races as well, like the 42nd Legislative District Senate seat and the 40th Legislative District House seats.

Cascadia Daily News has already started publishing closer looks into those races online for free, outside the paywall, at cascadiadaily.com/elections. Election stories will also be published in print July 17, 24 and 31.

In the meantime, if you're new to town or recently moved, don’t forget to check your voter registration status at voter.votewa.gov. If you're already a Washington voter and need to update your information, you can do so on the website until July 27. After that, you'll need to go in person to the county auditor's office (until Aug. 4) since Washington offers same-day registration and voting. You can also mail the form ahead of time.

You can also register to vote when visiting the Department of Licensing to get your driver's license. That's what I did a few years ago when I moved here; the most painful part of the process was waiting on an uncomfortable plastic chair.

Once you're registered, you can check on the status of your ballot on the voter portal or by texting “VOTE” to 868392. (I do this a couple of times a week when I'm bored and want to see where my ballot is or if it's been accepted.) The voter portal also allows you to see what your ballot may look like and download an online voter guide.

Chris Baldwin, who is running unopposed in the Skagit County Sheriff's Office race, will not appear in the Skagit County voters' pamphlet ahead of the Aug. 4 primary, even though Baldwin's campaign says it submitted the information ahead of the deadline.

Gabrielle Clay, the elections manager for the Skagit County Auditor's Office, said the omission was an "honest mistake."

The county offered to send mailers to voters with Baldwin's information, Clay said, but his campaign declined, saying they wanted to save the county money. To correct the issue, the online voter guide and PDF include Baldwin's information.

This isn't the first time this has happened in Skagit County. Last year, Mount Vernon City Council candidate Stefanie LeJeunesse didn't appear on the voters' pamphlet in the primary and the general elections, even though she filled out the necessary information.

But Clay said the two instances were not the same: Baldwin had his information in on time, while LeJeunesse didn't.

This week, CDN launched its annual Citizens Agenda process, allowing readers to submit their questions for candidates about the issues that may not get brought up in a candidate's stump speech or touched on during one of the litany of candidate forums.

We'll accept questions through end of day Monday, Aug. 3. Then readers will have a chance to vote on their top-five questions, which the candidates will answer in our general election Voters Guide.

Remember: We have many local races this year. Try to keep your questions targeted toward local issues, rather than the “doomsday big-D democracy is dying” and "what are candidates going to do about it" thought experiment.

Read more about Citizens Agenda from Deputy Editor Jon Bauer here, or watch the video below.

I had to interview 16 candidates running for two Port of Bellingham districts and for Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney. That means a lot of coffee shop interviews fueled by plenty of lattes and one strawberry Italian soda (I think I'm still shaking from the caffeine and sugar). While out and about, I've noticed plenty of elected officials and candidates hanging out in local coffee shops. So, in no particular order, here are the best places to find your local movers and shakers:

No. 1: Cafe Adagio, downtown Bellingham. Some of the best, and cheapest, coffee in town. Come in on a weekend morning around 8 a.m., and you'll find plenty of local officials discussing the morning's news.

No. 2: Roam, Columbia neighborhood. On a Tuesday morning, Port of Bellingham commissioners have been known to walk through the door. Never together, though, unless they violate public meeting laws (two out of three commissioners cannot be in the same place together).

No. 3: Makeworth, downtown Bellingham. You'll see young aspirational politicians here, finding ways to guide their vision for the next 20 years.

It's one thing to read about the candidates; it's another to actually meet them. Thanks to Alana Marcum, our audience engagement editor, for compiling a list of upcoming civic forums. This isn't exhaustive, so if you know about a forum you think I, or someone else in the newsroom, should be at, email me at [email protected].

If you missed it, the Whatcom County Auditor's Office ran its "I Voted Sticker" competition earlier this spring. The winners were a sloth riding a bike (lots of original thought there) and a raspberry with Mount Baker in the back (my personal favorite). No word yet on whether we'll get one of these stickers in the mail.

The New York Times: Is there such a thing as too many books? Apparently so. Mendel Uminer's landlord threatened eviction for keeping 10,000 books in his apartment, saying it created a fire hazard "by over-accumulating combustible books."

The NPR Politics Podcast: My evening ritual is to go on a 30-minute walk in my neighborhood, which gives me more than enough time to listen to a breakdown of the day's political news from some of my favorite voices on the radio. The in-depth analysis, combined with historical context, helps guide me through the decisions being made in Washington. An extra belated Fourth of July treat? The pod reads Bill Pullman's speech from Independence Day — that's my president — which I have memorized at this point.

My pre-primary reading list (Sorry, Bellingham Public Library for all my overdue books): "We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution" by Jill Lepore; "Whistler" by Ann Patchett; "Still Life With Bones" by Alexa Hagerty; "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson; "Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Process and How to Bring it Back" by Marc Dunkelman; "1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation" by Andrew Ross Sorkin.