The Voter Interests Project (VIP) is a non-partisan news aggregation and voter education project for the voters of Island County, WA. Our mission is to provide voters with the information they need to make informed decisions about candidates and ballot measures.
Who do we cover?
Our focus is local. We cover the county, cities and towns, and special districts within Island County, plus the legislators of Washington’s 10th Legislative District (which contains all of Island County). Specifically:
| County | Island County Board of County Commissioners, Assessor, Auditor, Clerk, Coroner, Prosecutor, Sheriff, Treasurer, Superior Court and District Court |
| Municipalities | Oak Harbor, Langley, and Coupeville |
| Hospital District | Whidbey Island Hospital District (WhidbeyHealth) |
| School Districts | Coupeville School District, Oak Harbor School District, South Whidbey School District, Stanwood-Camano School District |
| Fire Districts | Camano Island Fire and Rescue District, North Whidbey Fire and Rescue District, Central Whidbey Island Fire and Rescue District, South Whidbey Fire/EMS District |
| Parks Districts | North Whidbey Pool, Park and Recreation District, South Whidbey Parks and Recreation District |
| Port Districts | Port of Coupeville, Port of Mabana, Port of South Whidbey |
| Cemetery Districts | Cemetery District No. 1 (Maple Leaf Cemetery), Cemetery District Two (Sunnyside Cemetery) |
We do not cover Island County’s myriad water and sewer districts.
What are our sources?
Most of our posts are links to local news media: the Whidbey News-Times, South Whidbey Record, and Stanwood-Camano News. We occasionally find material in The Crab Cracker and the Whidbey Weekly.
We monitor the websites of all of the agencies listed above. We maintain an events calendar with the public meetings of these agencies and update the events with meeting agendas when available.
We review campaign finance reports filed with the Public Disclosure Commission, and various documents and reports on the Washington State Legislature‘s website.
Finally, we subscribe to the newsletters of candidates and elected officials, local political parties, and selected nonprofit organizations that have an impact on local elections. Recently, we’ve added the Facebook pages of candidates to our watchlists.