After a month of gathering signatures, the Home Rule for Yakima County  campaign has launched a new website at yakimahomerule.org.

On the front page, voters can see a summary of the benefits of  creating a Home Rule charter, like the opportunity to create districts  or allow ballot initiatives. The site also has a FAQ section to answer  voters’ questions, and people who want to get more involved can  download the Fact Sheet and sign up to volunteer. The goal, says Mary Baechler of Central Washington Progress, is to  bring the government closer to the people. 

“Creating a Home Rule Charter is like having a constitutional convention, but at the county level,” said Baechler. “Writing a Home  Rule Charter for our county is an opportunity to make Yakima  government more democratic and more accountable to the people. That is  why our Washington State Constitution allows counties to elect to be  Home Rule Charter counties, like King County. Home Rule Charter gives  the Yakima County citizens more local control over their county.”

The Home Rule for Yakima campaign has until August 8 to gather 9,000  signatures to appear on the November ballot.