He’s a candidate again for Bellingham mayor, but his name won’t appear on the ballot

There’s now a sixth candidate for Bellingham mayor, but voters won’t see his name on the Aug. 1 primary election ballot.

Joel Johnson, the grassroots candidate who used a petition drive to try to get on the ballot and lost a legal challenge when his petitions weren’t accepted, has registered as a write-in candidate for Bellingham mayor.

Write-in candidates must register with the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office for any write-in votes to count, Auditor Diana Bradrick told The Bellingham Herald.

Johnson, a community and labor organizer, announced his write-in candidacy in a statement emailed to The Herald.

“I am the only candidate for mayor of Bellingham who is not entrenched in city government or a millionaire. That’s how come a groundswell of support is developing around this grassroots effort. The people of Bellingham are like me, fed up with shape-shifting and too little, too late pace and we want bold change and a new approach to how we are addressing the crisis in front of us,” Johnson said in his statement.

Here’s who else is running

Other candidates for mayor, in order of their appearance on the ballot, are:

▪ Chris McCoy, CEO of Kombucha Town, which makes fermented tea.

▪ Kim Lund, former director of the Bellingham Schools Foundation and a member of the Whatcom County Planning Commission

▪ Seth Fleetwood, current Bellingham mayor who is running for a second four-year term.

▪ Mike McAuley, who served as a Port of Bellingham commissioner form 2010 to 2017 and serves on the Bellingham Planning Commission.

▪ Kristina Michele Martens, the at-large member of the City Council.

Under Washington state election law, only the two candidates with the most votes will advance to the Nov. 7 general election.

Johnson initially launched his campaign during filing week May 15-19 by gathering voter signatures instead of paying a fee to run for office, as most candidates do.

He needed 2,211 valid signatures of registered Bellingham voters in lieu of a $2,211 filing fee, Bradrick said.

Johnson submitted 2,506 signatures but only 1,750 signatures proved to be valid, Bradrick said. He sued to have the signatures counted by hand by employees in the auditor’s office, but lost in a June 6 court ruling.