Skamania County Clerk

Description

The County Clerk is one of several independent, elected officials provided by the Washington State Constitution (Article IV, Sec 26), with specific and special duties assigned by statute, as well as local and state court rules. The position of County Clerk is best characterized as the administrative and financial officer of the Superior Court. The County Clerk's purpose is to ensure the separation of powers among the three branches of government by preserving the integrity of the judiciary. Those three branches are Executive, Judicial, and Legislative. This purpose is accomplished in three ways: 1. By being independent of the judicial branch, the Clerk protects the judiciary from the appearance of impropriety or unfairness in the setting of cases, implementation of orders, or investment of funds. 2. The Clerk is located in the Executive Branch of government and provides the avenue for external oversight of the judiciary without legislative or executive branch interference with its actions, integrity or independence. 3. As an independent elected official, the Clerk preserves for the public unrestrained access to a fair, accurate, and independently established record of the opinions, decisions, and judgments of the court.

Application Guidelines

The filing window for this position 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 Office in Olympia. For non-partisan offices, if there is only two candidates filed for a position 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 Skamania County Auditor's office can be reached at (509) 427-3730 or [email protected], and the Secretary of State Office can be reached at (360) 902-4151 or [email protected]. ***Washington is one of the only states with online filing for candidacy. For more information regarding filing online, please see here: http://www.skamaniacounty.org/auditor/

Submit application to:
Skamania County Auditor, 240 NW Vancouver Ave, Skamania, WA, 98648, US