It’s conservation district election season on the North Olympic Peninsula.
Not that too many people seem interested, judging so far by the number of candidates and voters.
In Jefferson County, sole conservation district candidate and incumbent Julie Boggs of Chimacum was re-elected with 13 votes Wednesday to a three-term position on the board of supervisors, district manager Al Latham said Friday.
That’s one more vote than Supervisor John Boulton received last year when he was re-elected, Latham said.
Balloting was between 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the district office in Port Hadlock.
The board is responsible for a $280,000 operating budget for the 2010 fiscal year.
Sequim-area resident Ashley Merscher was the only person to file for a Clallam Conservation District supervisor vacancy created when incumbent Marilyn Pollock decided not to seek re-election to the three-year term.
Polling places and times for the March 14 election are from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Sequim Library, 630 N. Sequim Ave., and from 3:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Port Angeles Library, 2210 S. Peabody St.
Unlike years past, no one can sign up as a write-in at the last minute, district manager Joe Holtrop said in a recent interview.
New state laws require write-ins to file candidate forms for open positions four weeks before balloting — the same day other candidates also file nominating petitions with the signatures of at least 25 county registered voters.
Merscher filed as a candidate with 38 names on the nominating petition.
The deadline was Feb. 14 for both write-in candidates and those who file with nominating petitions.
“We have a tradition of having write-in candidates for our elections,” Holtrop said.
“If history repeats itself and there is a write-in candidate out there, and lo and behold it turns out people write their name on it but it’s all in vain, it might not be too much fun to deal with.”
The five-person Clallam board of supervisors is responsible for an annual publicly funded budget of between $1 million and $2 million.
Conservation district boards statewide implement plans and distribute publicly funded grants to private landowners to protect natural resources such as soil and streams.
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Senior staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
