Procrastinating? Don’t let this election slip by
- Jerry LeClaire, Oct 29, 2025
Six days from now, next Tuesday, November 4, at 8PM is the deadline for Washington State voters to turn in their ballots for the General Election. This year there is a new impediment—delayed postmarking that could invalidate your ballot. If you have procrastinated this long use a ballot drop box rather than the mail. Here is a list of ballot drop boxes in Spokane County. (Hint: most, but not all, are located at libraries.)
These odd-numbered year elections are granular; what’s on your ballot depends a great deal on your voting address. Don’t let that stand in your way. There are ample resources available online that offer sober assessments of candidate differences beyond the memes and often misleading soundbite ads fed us on social media and TV. My favorite resource is The Progressive Voters’ Guide. Links to that Guide and others are found here.
If your voter address is within the City of Spokane there are a few specific articles from RANGEmedia.co’s election coverage and links to recommend. If you’re puzzled by the two contested municipal judge positions check out Aaron Hedge’s “The oft forgotten branch in elections: judges”. The District 3 contest (NW) between incumbent Zack Zappone and Christopher Savage is well-covered in this article by Erin Sellers that appeared before the August Primary election. (You can ignore the third candidate, of course. He lost in the primary.) Several reasons to choose Kate Telis over Larry Stone’s candidate Alejandro Barrientos in District 2 (South) are found here and here.
If your voting address is not in the City of Spokane, once again I recommend The Progressive Voters’ Guide. Click there for guides to elections in many other states as well as county-specific guides and voting-address-specific guides for Washington State.
One last shout out. In Central Valley School District out in Spokane Valley there is a race between Mark Bitz, a retired educator and engineer who was recognized as Educator of the Year in 2023, and the incumbent Pam Orebaugh whose tenure has been marked far more for pursuing culture war issues than actual issues in education. Spending school district money on promoting education rather than legal challenges to state law seems to me like a no-brainer.
Spend a little time, vote you ballot, turn it in to a drop box before next Tuesday, and
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry