White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-03-26
Exclusion
Election
Saturday
Sustaining OF Board In
Excluding II Tracts
Question At Issue

The next step of the settlers Of
the valley, through the Priest Rapids
Irrigation District in acquiring the
ownership and possession of the IT.
rigation properties in this valley will
be taken next Saturday, March %,
when the exclusion election will be
held.
The land owners in the district
will determine by their votes at this
election whether certain tracts of
land shall be excluded from the dis
trict.
At it's regular monthly meetings in
February and March, the irrigation
district board passed on all petitions
forexclusion that had been presented
in time for consideration at those
meetings. Some of these petitions
were granted by the board and others
were denied. In acting on the petit
tons the board tried to follow as
closely as possible the provisions of
the irrigation district law, which in
a general way provide that no land
for which a legal application for
exclusion has been made shall be kept
in district when it can not be ben
Gifted by the district and that no
petition for exclusion shall be grant,
ed where the land involved can be
benefited by the district.
All of the land the board voted to
exclude will fall under one of three
heads: either the land lay too high to
be watered by gravity from the ir-
rigation system; was so located as
to make the cost of building laterals
to it prohibitive; or had an adequate
and independent water supply.
Ordinarily, the action of the board
on these exclusion petitions would
have been sufficient but the exclusion
election was made necessary by the
filling of a petition signed by few
of the land owners and protesting
against the board granting any of the
petitions for exclusions.
The land invclvedssiEe chose petitions
for exclusion that were denied by
the board are not an issue in the
election Saturday. All that the land
owners will be called to vote on at
that time will be the tracts of land
that the board voted to exclude from
the district. There are II Of these
descriptions on the ballot and the
voters must vote on each one separ-
ately. After the description of each
tract of land there are two lines. One
says: "For Exclusion and the
other Against Exclusion Those
who wish to vote to sustain the board,
and this is important, will place an
x in the () on the line after "For
Exclusion and those. who want to
vote against the action of the board
and to retain the land in the dis
trict, will place an x in the }
after against Exclusion.
The qualifications of voters at an
irrigation district election are: over
81 years of age, citizen of the
United States, resident of the state
of Washington and the owner of
title or evidence of title to land with
in the district.
The question has been asked: Can
a person whose land is included in the
list of those to be voted on at an
exclusion election, vote at such cleo
ton? In answer to an inquiry on this
point Attorney Fred Cunningham
says: "Where an election is called on
petitions for exclusions, the election
holds the decision of the district board
in allegiance so that all the owners Of
land within the district are entitled to
vote in accordance with the irrigation
district law"
Another provision Of the irrigation
district law is that where the land is
community property, both the hus- ,
band and wife have vote.
To keep the cost of the election
down to the minimum, the board de-
cided to have only one voting place, |
the brick school house, about midway
between White Bluffs and Hanford. !
The polls will be open from 9 a. m.
to p. m. |
There are between ESQ and 300 land
owners in the district who are en-
titled to vote at this election in the
seven hours allotted time. The ballots
that will be used are large, about the
size of page of an ordinary news
paper. Because of the number of
voters and the short space of time
they will have to vote, it behooves
everyone to Be at the voting place
early to be assured of casting their
ballots before the polls close.
The election is an important one and
every land owner in the district should
participate in it so that the outcome
will leave no doubt as to the majority
Judgment on these exclusions.
Miss Louise Paschen, freshman at
the University of Washington, ar
lived Wednesday to spend few /