Greg Kimsey
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey has announced he will be seeking election for the post again this year, hoping to continue on in a role he has filled at the county for nearly two decades.
Kimsey made his decision official in a release Sunday.
Important to Kimsey’s understanding of an auditor’s responsibilities were being able to improve citizens’ confidence in government, the release stated, as the office has more direct interactions with citizens than any other government office in the county.
Since first taking office in 1999 the population of Clark County had increased by almost 40 percent, but the auditor’s office has 14 percent fewer staff, the release stated.
Kimsey’s release also highlighted changes from this year’s legislative session that will impact elections which the Auditor’s Office oversees, the most significant since the 1993 federal “motor voter” law passed. In 2019 same-day voter registration, automatic registration and “pre-registration” for 16-year-old citizens passed.
Other changes looming on the horizon were improvements of the state’s voter registration system and a likely replacement of the county’s ballot creation and tabulation system in the next few years — changes Kimsey was eager to see implemented “in a way that ensures the integrity of our elections system is maintained” should he be re-elected, the release stated.
The release touted a few of Kimsey’s accolades including being named by Washington’s Secretary of State as the “County Auditor of the Year,” and by the Mainstream Republicans of Washington as the “Local Government Official of the Year.” In the last four years Kimsey’s office “has received the highest awards given by its national peers for its performance audits.”
The county auditor is the county’s primary financial officer, the release stated, conducting performance audits, reviewing controls that are in place to safeguard the public’s assets, recording legal documents, issuing marriage licenses, serving as an agent for the Department of Licensing and having oversight responsibilities for nine privately owned licensing sub-agent offices while also registering people to vote and conducting all public elections. The Auditor’s Office currently has 43 permanent employees and a $6.2 million annual budget.
As of press time Kimsey was the only candidate to file with the state Public Disclosure Commission for the race.
