A candidate for county assessor who didn’t register to vote until this year said Monday that she never felt an urgent need.
Democrat Janet S. Seekins, 53, posted a letter on her website last week encouraging people to register to vote.
“There’s no excuse,” Seekins said Monday. “I’m telling everyone in the world, ‘You need to vote.’ “
While the deadline for submitting a mail-in voter registration form in order to participate in the Nov. 2 general election has passed, citizens who are not registered to vote anywhere in the state can register at the Clark County Elections Department, 1408 Franklin St., until Oct. 25.
Seekins, a senior residential appraiser at the Clark County assessor’s office, said she registered to vote in April because she knew she would want to vote for assessor in this fall’s election.
She said she didn’t know at the time her name would be on the ballot, because she didn’t yet know her boss, Assessor Linda Franklin, would not seek a third term.
“Before this year, like many individuals, I was consumed with the responsibilities and commitments of family and friends. It seemed like there weren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. I never followed politics and neglected to register to vote,” Seekins wrote in a letter that she posted on her website.
“I’ve learned these past few months how important it is to vote. Voting is not only a right, it is a privilege and a responsibility. I am proud to say that I am now a registered voter. It doesn’t matter whether you are conservative, liberal, or independent; you need to vote to make a difference,” she wrote in the letter.
The other candidate for assessor, Republican Peter Van Nortwick, registered to vote in Clark County in 1997 when he moved here.
His voting record shows that he did not vote between 2000 and 2006.
Van Nortwick, 43, said Monday that he was going through a divorce and moved a lot during those years, so he never considered himself a permanent resident and never voted.
It’s difficult to pinpoint how many adults who are eligible to vote aren’t registered.
According to the Clark County auditor’s office, which oversees elections, there are approximately 218,000 registered voters in Clark County.
According to the state’s Office of Financial Management, as of April 2009 there were 305,071 adults ages 20 and older living in the county. The office breaks down population by age categories and listed 30,345 people ages 15 to 19, some of whom would be eligible to vote. But all of those numbers include people, such as felons, who are ineligible to vote.
Both Seekins and Van Nortwick voted in the August primary. They beat two other candidates to advance to the general election.
Approximately 39 percent of registered voters participated in the August primary.
Stephanie Rice: 360-735-4508 or stephanie.rice@columbian.com.
