Skagit County Clerk

Description

The Skagit County Clerk is one of several independent elected officials provided by the Washington State Constitution with specific and special duties assigned by statute, as well as local and state court rules. The three branches of county government are Executive, Judicial and Legislative. The County Clerk is an Executive Branch Seat and is the administrative and financial officer of Superior Court. Duties include: 1.) Administrator of Court Records and Exhibits: The Clerk receives, processes and permanently preserves all documents presented in a Superior Court cause of action. These records include filings and documents within the following case types: Adult Felony, Civil, Domestic, Probate, Guardianship, Paternity, Adoption, Involuntary Commitment, Truancy, Children at Risk, Children in Need of Services, Dependency and Juvenile Offender. 2.) Financial Officer of the Court: The Clerk collects statutory fees, fines, victim restitution and trust funds. The trust account for monies received is maintained by the Clerk and disbursed upon court order. 3.) Quasi-judicial Officer: The Clerk exercises quasi judicial functions (to exercise discretion of a judicial nature) for the issuance of writs, subpoenas, warrants of arrest, letters testamentary and other court related orders. 4.) Ex Officio Clerk of the Court: Under the Constitution of the State of Washington the Clerk has the title of "ex officio clerk of the court". This requires the Clerk's presence at all court sessions for the purpose of establishing an independent record of each hearing called "Minutes" which are available to the public. The Clerk must also be present at every court hearing or trial to receive and keep a record of all exhibits (evidence) entered by the parties.

Application Guidelines

The filing window for this Seat begins the Monday two weeks prior to Memorial Day and ends on the Friday of that week (5 days). Candidacy filing papers can be acquired at and are submitted to either the county elections office or the Secretary of State’s Office in Olympia. For non-partisan offices, if there is only two candidates filed for a Seat they will run against each other in the November election. If more than two candidates file for a non-partisan office, than the non-partisan office will go through the August primary and the top two vote getters will advance to the November election for the seat. For a partisan office, the candidates will run in the August primary even if only two people are participating. This may create scenarios where the same candidates participate for the same seat in the August primary and November election. For any further questions, the Skagit County Elections office can be reached at (360) 336-9305, or at [email protected] and the Secretary of State’s Office can be reached at (360) 902-4151 ***Washington is one of the only states with online filing for candidacy. For more information regarding filing online, please see here: https://wei.sos.wa.gov/county/skagit/en/Documents/Submission%20Guidelines/2015%20Skagit%20County%20Candidate%20Pamphlet.pdf

Submit application to:
Skagit County Elections, P.O. Box 1306, Mount Vernon, WA, 98273, US