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Filing Week For Public Office Opens in Spokane County

Rebecca White/SPR

The filing period to run for office in Spokane County opened today and there are nearly 150 elected positions open in Spokane County.

In the first few hours of filing week 41 candidates filed for 33 open positions said Spokane County elections manager Mike McLaughlin. He said that’s likely a small fraction of people expected to file this week.

“We’ll get a lot of people the next Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night. A lot of people will file, we’ll come to work, get them processed and up on the website.”

There are school, fire, water and cemetery district seats open for election, as well as several city council, and mayor positions up for election across the county.

Two competitive Spokane City Council seats have no incumbents filing for office, including the Northeast and Northwest city council positions. Several new, and second- or third time candidates have filed for those seats.

Two candidates have declared they will run for the South Spokane City Council seat, Betsy Wilkerson who was appointed to the seat in late 2019 and Tyler LeMasters, a first-time candidate.

Spokane Valley currently has several open city council seats as well, and incumbents Ben Wick, Pam Haley, Rod Higgins have already filed for office. A few new candidates have also filed including Laura Padden, a web developer who is also married to State Senator Mike Padden.

McLaughlin encouraged people to file online, saying it is both easier for staff and candidates. He said if candidates need to file in person, they still must wear masks in the Elections’ office.

Filing for office is open from now until 4 p.m. on Friday.