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As the Aug. 6 primary election nears, a Lynnwood City Council candidate has challenged the residency of one of her opponents.
In late May, Rosamaria Graziani filed a voter registration challenge with the Snohomish County Auditor’s office against fellow candidate Julieta Altamirano-Crosby. Both candidates are campaigning for the open Position 5 seat on the council.
In the challenge, filed May 29, Graziani alleged Altamirano-Crosby was a Mukilteo resident who only recently moved to Lynnwood and did not meet the year-long residential requirement to run for an elected position in the city. However, the challenge was dismissed two days later by the auditor’s office.
A May 31 letter signed by Snohomish County Auditor Carolyn Weikel stated two reasons for the dismissal: That the challenge failed to provide evidence that Altamirano-Crosby was still a Mukilteo resident, and that it was incomplete.
According to the Revised Code of Washington (RCW), Graziani was required to send proof that she sent a certified letter to Altamirano-Crosby informing her of the challenge before filing it with the auditor’s office. But Weikel’s dismissal letter stated that Graziani did not send a certified letter of notice to Altamirano-Crosby about the challenge until after it had been filed.
The RCW states that a candidate running for elected office must be a registered voter at the time of filing and must have lived in the city for one year before the election.
Altamirano-Crosby changed her voter registration status on May 16 — one day before the deadline to file for the city council election.
According to the Snohomish County Assessor’s office, Altamirano-Crosby and her husband Patrick purchased their Lynnwood property in February 2018, where they built their new home. Altamirano-Crosby said that she and her family moved to Lynnwood in September 2018, after construction was completed.
Jeanne Crevier, Altamirano-Crosby’s campaign manager, said the sale of Altamirano-Crosby’s Mukilteo home was completed in March of this year.
“Julieta met the residency and all other requirements to run for the Lynnwood City Council,” Crevier said.
Lynnwood Today left several messages with Graziani asking whether she intended to appeal the auditor’s office ruling, but as of this posting did not receive a reply.
— By Cody Sexton
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