Anxious voters are calling the Pierce County Auditor’s Office because Pierce Transit Proposition 1 does not appear on their ballots.

“Some voters think they have been issued the wrong ballot, but they have forgotten that Pierce Transit’s boundary contracted earlier this year,” said Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson. “Some people who voted on a Pierce Transit measure in 2011 are no longer eligible to vote on the matter in 2012.”

In May, the communities of Bonney Lake, Buckley, DuPont, Orting, Sumner and large portions of unincorporated Pierce County were removed from the Pierce Transit taxing district/service area. As a result, there are 105,450 fewer voters in the Pierce Transit district this election. And that’s generating a lot of phone calls to the Auditor’s Office.

The boundary change occurred after a Public Transportation Improvement Conference (PTIC) as outlined by RCW 36.57A.020 approved the removal of the jurisdictions mentioned above. The PTIC membership was comprised of one elected official from each jurisdiction within Pierce County and the Pierce County Council. There were three public meetings and one public hearing by the PTIC from December 2011 to March 2012. The boundaries changes became official on May 8, 2012.

A map of the new Pierce Transit boundary can be found here.

More information about Prop. 1 is online here.