See, call candidates to get answers

Today’s front page headline urging ALL La Conner School District residents to attend tonight’s District 1 and 2 director candidates forum uses all caps to get your attention. That is a poor fix for the error made here last week, when the editorial wrongly focused on urging Fidalgo Island voters in Districts 1 and 2 to attend the forum.

Wrong: In Washington all voters in a school district vote for all directors. That is an at large voting system placed on top of geographical representation by distributing directors throughout the district.

I mistakenly assumed that directors located in a district were voted on by residents of that district. In Ohio, Michigan and Minnesota, in close to 50 years of electoral participation, that is how I have experienced the structure and language of districts and representatives. Candidates seeking votes from all residents are called at large directors. In those states I never experienced at large voting with a candidate confined to living in a portion of the district.

This Washington system provides everyone the opportunity to vote for someone who will come from on or near the Swinomish Reservation, Shelter Bay, La Conner and the surrounding farmlands. The directors represent the entire school district while each section has a director tied to a street address.

One conclusion from this: voting is not to be assumed as an easy exercise. A second lesson: high voter intelligence has to extend beyond learning about, assessing and deciding on candidates. A third lesson: there is no spoon-fed support for citizenship.

Like so much else in our culture, individuals have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and take the initiative to learn the rules and get the information they need to vote responsibly. Newspaper editors may be familiar with the RCW, the Revised Code of Washington, and thus search out a defining section. Newspaper editors go to the county elections office website to get summary information on candidates. But what do any of us do when candidates self-introduce and summarize themselves and some don’t provide any information at all? The information they do offer is partial and all positive.

Attending candidate forums is a start to the solution. Tonight’s is at 17337 Reservation Road on the Swinomish Reservation, next to the Swinomish Youth Center/Recreation Gym. Short notice, I know.

Below is the candidates’ contact information. Call them.

Between now and when you cast your vote by Nov. 5 call them, introduce yourself and grill them on issues important to you. It’s a good way to get educated on the two contested races in greater La Conner.

John T. Agen, (360) 503-4049, [email protected]

Kate Szurek, (360) 466-9149, [email protected]

Marlys Baker, (254) 383-0642, [email protected]

Janie Beasley, (360) 770-8075, [email protected]