H-0163.1  _______________________________________________

                          HOUSE BILL 1285

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      56th Legislature     1999 Regular Session

By Representatives D. Schmidt, McMorris, Romero, Scott, Wensman, Esser, Carrell, Benson, Doumit, D. Sommers, Dunn and Lambert

Read first time 01/20/1999.  Referred to Committee on State Government.

Clarifying where declarations of candidacy are filed.

    AN ACT Relating to filing for office; and amending RCW 29.15.030.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

    Sec. 1.  RCW 29.15.030 and 1998 c 22 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

    Declarations of candidacy shall be filed ((with the following filing officers)) as follows:

    (1) ((The secretary of state for)) Declarations of candidacy for state-wide offices, the United States senate, ((and)) the United States house of representatives((;

    (2) The secretary of state for declarations of candidacy for)), the state legislature, the court of appeals, and the superior court when voters from a district comprising more than one county vote upon the candidates((;

    (3) The county auditor for all other offices.  For any nonpartisan office, other than judicial offices and school director in joint districts, where voters from a district comprising more than one county vote upon the candidates, a declaration of candidacy shall)) must be filed with the secretary of state or the county auditor of the county in which the candidate resides.

(2) Declarations of candidacy for all county offices and for all other offices of a local government that is either coextensive with a county or located completely within a county must be filed with the county auditor of that county.

(3) Declarations of candidacy for any other office of a local government that is located in more than one county, other than a school director of a joint school district, must be filed with the county auditor of the county in which a majority of the registered voters of the district reside.  ((For school directors in joint school districts, the declaration of candidacy shall))

(4) Declarations of candidacy for school director of a joint school district must be filed with the county auditor of the county designated by the state board of education as the county to which the joint school district is considered as belonging under RCW 28A.315.380.

    Each official with whom declarations of candidacy are filed under this section, within one business day following the closing of the applicable filing period, shall forward to the public disclosure commission a copy of each declaration of candidacy filed in his office during such filing period or a list containing the name of each candidate who files such a declaration in his office during such filing period together with a precise identification of the position sought by each such candidate and the date on which each such declaration was filed.  Such official, within three days following his receipt of any letter withdrawing a person's name as a candidate, shall also forward a copy of such withdrawal letter to the public disclosure commission.

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