Message from the Chair

GET OUT THE VOTE!

From the Chair, Val Torrens

Hi all,

The ballots are out! If you haven’t received one, please contact the Kitsap County Auditor’s Office immediately. They will be able to help you so you can cast your vote.

If you have your ballot, please take it out now and VOTE! The candidates running for these offices come from your friends and neighbors. They are not political hacks or folks who would not understand issues and concerns that impact the work of the position they are seeking. You can’t ask for better representation than someone who is local and knows what is needed to make the system work better. Take advantage of this and VOTE!

If you think I have a bias towards voting, you are correct. I grew up in a household with one parent a registered Democrat and the other was a registered Republican. My parents chose to be in separate parties to enable them to have a say in each party. Yes, my parents thought alike but there was never any pressure to vote one way versus the other.

In 1971, the 26^th Amendment was passed that allowed 18-year-olds to vote and I became part of the first group of eighteen-year-olds to do so. I have not missed an election since then even when I had to vote absentee because the Navy had us living elsewhere. I say all this so you know that I have no understanding of why people don’t vote. This state makes it so easy to vote. Once you are registered, you are in the database and a ballot will be mailed to you. You just need to open the envelope, find the race(s) that need your VOTE, mark the ballot accordingly, put it in the security envelope, put that in the postage paid envelope – you don’t even have to provide a stamp – and either put the envelope in the mail or in a ballot drop box. I highly recommend the drop box for two reasons: (1) it doesn’t cost the county any money to cover postage that would be required for those ballots that are mailed and (2) it ensures that your ballot is secure and can only be accessed by the Kitsap County Auditor’s office staff and that your ballot will be timely (not delayed potentially by the post office) and therefore it will be counted. Regardless of which way you choose, please do your civic duty and VOTE!

Really, when you think about it, very little is asked of us as citizens of this country: we are expected to obey the laws and VOTE. That’s it. Surely we all can manage to do that. And, in case my message isn’t clear: VOTE!!

The deadline for your ballot to count is 8 pm on Tuesday, August 5. Make sure you mail your ballot by then or put it in a drop box. And, once again, please VOTE!!

Good Trouble Line Dancers on Hwy 305

July 17th 2025