Drafter
Clerk 06/16/2005
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A MOTION authorizing the production of a video voters' guide for the 2005 countywide primary and general election.
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WHEREAS, King County and the city of Seattle regularly publish and distribute combined voters' pamphlets to inform voters about election candidates, and
WHEREAS, King County and the city of Seattle successfully collaborated in 1993 through 2003 to use video technology to produce video voters' guides to enhance voter education, and
WHEREAS, the primary and general elections to be held in September and November 2005 present once more an opportunity for the county and the city to jointly produce a video voters' guide for certain election candidates;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
A. King County wishes to join with the city of Seattle in jointly producing a video voters' guide for both the September 20, 2005, county primary and for the November 8, 2005, general election.
B. This project shall be pursued as a joint effort by the King County records, elections and licensing services division, the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, the video unit of the King County council ("CTV") and the Seattle Municipal Video Channel.
C. The following guidelines shall apply to the production of the video voters' guide:
1. Candidate participation in the guide shall be voluntary and available to all primary and general election candidates in the races for King County government offices, Seattle municipal races, Seattle School District Board of Directors, the Seattle Port Commission and the Seattle Popular Monorail Authority;
2. Production and distribution of the guide shall comply to the extent possible with the laws and rules governing printed voter pamphlets. Compliance with these laws and rules shall be the responsibility of the manager of the King County records, elections and licensing services division and the executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission;
3. All participating candidates will record their statements in the same studio setting. Statements shall be no longer than two minutes in length. It will be the candidate's responsibility to select the recorded statement that will be included in the guide. These recorded statements will not be altered once selected;
4. The recorded candidate statements and any other recorded material resulting from production shall not be used to assist a candidate, and any other use must be authorized by the manager of the King County records, elections and licensing services division or the executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission, as appropriate;
5. To offset production and distribution costs, participating candidates will be charged a fee of one hundred dollars each. The fee will be waived for candidates who file for office by petition in lieu of a filing fee or who can show that at the time they were notified of the video production schedule, their campaign fund did not contain one hundred dollars that was not already obligated;
6. Funding for production and distribution will be jointly provided by King County and the city of Seattle in an amount not to exceed forty thousand dollars each for both the primary and general election video voters' guides and in general accordance with the preliminary budget attached to this motion as Attachment A to this motion;
7. The city of Seattle and King County will jointly provide broadcast times to disseminate the guides throughout the period prior to the primary and the general election;
8. Additional broadcast opportunities shall be pursued by both the city and county television offices with other cable television systems and television stations serving King County;
9. To ensure that the guides are available to residents without television or cable television service, copies will be distributed to branches of the King County and Seattle public libraries; and
10. The guides shall be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.
D. The manager of the King County records, elections and licensing services division is requested to prepare participation guidelines in conjunction with the executive director of the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for the benefit of those candidates who choose to participate.