The Yakima City Council will ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider a full or partial stay of this year’s elections. In a 4-3 vote Monday, the council approved a resolution asking for a stay and cited the city’s old elections system as the preferred method for voting this year. Under that system, only the positions now held by Maureen Adkison, Thomas Dittmar, Rick Ensey and Kathy Coffey would be up for a citywide vote during the November general election. Dittmar and Ensey have said they would not run this year.
However, the resolution also proposes a partial stay of the new elections to allow Councilmen Dave Ettl, Bill Lover and Micah Cawley to finish their current terms through 2017, but also allows district-only voting for the council’s four other seats. The partial stay is considered a secondary option in addition to the preferred method of keeping the old elections system.
Monday was the third time in as many weeks that the council has voted on a stay of this year’s elections under a new district-based system ordered by a federal judge in February. On May 27, the council voted 4-3 against asking for a partial stay of elections, then one week later voted 5-2 in favor of a full stay of the elections, with council members Adkison and Lover flipping to support the stay request.
Full Article: Yakima council OKs options for elections stay | Local | yakimaherald.com.