Today, May 8, is the last day for candidates running for elected office in Washington state to officially declare their candidacy and submit all relevant documents to their local auditors’ office or the Office of the Washington Secretary of State. Candidates who have filed can be found on the Secretary of State’s website.
Washington state voters will be able to cast their first ballot during the primary election on August 4. The top two candidates for each race, regardless of political affiliation, will advance to the general election scheduled on November 3.
At the state level, all 98 seats in the Washington State House of Representatives and 24 out of 49 seats in the Washington State Senate are on the ballot. There are five seats on the Washington State Supreme Court that will be on the ballot as well.
As a reminder, the University of Washington is a public institution, and all UW employees are subject to strict campaign regulations. UW employees may not use UW resources (facilities, letterhead, emails, mailing lists, etc.) for any campaign-related activities and employees may not engage in such activities during official work hours. UW employees are personally responsible for ensuring that no campaign laws are broken, and violations may result in monetary penalties or escalating enforcement actions.
However, it is important to note that nothing prohibits UW employees from expressing personal views and participating with campaigns on personal time using personal resources.
More information about campaign regulations for state employees may be found on this website under State Lobbying & Reporting and the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission website.
Questions?
For questions about policy or UW’s advocacy efforts in Olympia, please contact Morgan Hickel at mhickel@uw.edu and Kevin Chang at kchang28@uw.edu.