The proposed operational budget for the Thurston County Health Department includes the elimination of all family planning services. Join me and others from our community this evening to fight for the future of Family Planning. The public hearing before the Thurston County Council from 5:30 - 8:30 pm, 2000 Lakeridge Dr SW Building 1 Room 152 Olympia, WA 98502

The Thurston County Family Planning Clinic serves an essential role within our community. Nearly half of all sexually active young adults (13-29) will contract a sexually transmitted infection. Most of these are treated easily when detected early. With more and more of Thurston County's families losing their jobs, fewer of these youth are insured. They have two options: get tested and treated early at the family planning clinic, or wait until an infection becomes so severe that it requires hospitalization.

Our youth are facing unprecedented hardship. The lack of easily accessible basic health care and prevention services is placing them at risk for systemic infections leading to blindness, permanent organ damage, infertility and even death. In Dallas County Texas, County Commissioners banned the distribution of condoms through the local health jurisdiction. Nearly a decade later, Dallas County now has the highest HIV infection rate in their state. We know what happens when prevention and basic health care are not available, and we must act now.

Thurston County's tax payers have supported the Family Planning Clinic for years. Our return on investment has been huge. Disease transmission has been limited, families are equipped with the knowledge necessary to prevent pregnancies they're not ready for, and women's lives are saved through vaccination and annual exams.  If we lose our public health infrastructure, it is unlikely we will get it back.

Following up on Tezzer's post, I called the Thurston County Auditor's Office. No Sylvia is employed at the Auditor's Office and the Outreach position is not currently filled.

The circumstances surrounding verification requests may differ from voter to voter. Some may not have filled out their registrations properly, others may have changed addresses, while others may be involved in a reported "error." I'm waiting to get confirmation of whether an error has occurred or not.

Regardless, the consequence of sending verification requests the day that ballots are mailed out is that some legally and properly registered voters will not receive ballots. This is indeed a purge of voter rolls, whether malicious or not doesn't really matter.

The Thurston County Auditor has begun to mail ballots to registered voters in our county. Unfortunately it appears that today some students have also received address verification notices in the place of their ballots. What does this mean? Ballots for an unknown number of students and residents in our area are not being delivered and instead will be retained by the auditor until address confirmation is received. Essentially, voter rolls are being purged at the last minute, leaving very little time for voters to provide the requested verification.

If you have received a letter from the County Auditor or the Secretary of State that indicates your ballot will not be mailed on time, please respond to the verification request as soon as possible. Additionally, I ask that you please take the time to reply here so that we can begin to assess the scope of this problem. One step you can take includes filing a report with the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington State by calling (206) 624-2180 during business hours.

Additional points of contact include:

Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed: (360) 902-4151 http://www.secstate.wa.gov/office/ Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman: (360) 786-5408

The Olympian Reporters:

Rolf Boone 360-754-5403 rboone@theolympian.com

Venice Buhain 360-754-5445 vbuhain@theolympian.com

Matt Batcheldor 360-704-6869 mbatcheldor@theolympian.com

Brad Shannon 360-753-1688 bshannon@theolympian.com