King County Elections will host four virtual candidate workshops for people interested in learning the ins-and-outs of running for office.

The workshops, one in March and three in April, will be held to demystify the process by empowering potential candidates with key information they need to file their candidacy, according to a King County Elections news release. This year there are over 330 local, nonpartisan offices up for election.

“We know that one of the key reasons people don’t vote in local elections is because they don’t see candidates on the ballot who look like them or represent their community,” said Julie Wise, director of King County Elections. “These workshops are an opportunity for less experienced or first-time candidates to get information and ask questions directly from the team that will ultimately help them through the filing process.”

The workshops will cover a range of topics including the elections calendar, online candidate filing, filing fee petitions, ballot order, local voters’ pamphlet filing and more.

“Running for office takes a tremendous amount of courage and even the most technical parts of the process can be intimidating,” Wise said. “We want to make to make things as easy as possible.”

The workshops will be in preparation for the candidate filing period this year, which begins on Monday, May 17 through the following Friday, May 21. All declarations of candidacy must be received by King County Elections before the close of business on May 21, regardless of postmark.

Virtual workshops:

• Tuesday, March 16, 6-8 p.m.

• Thursday, April 1, 6-8 p.m.

• Saturday, April 17, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

• Thursday, April 29, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.

Where: Virtual meeting over Zoom webinar

How: Visit bit.ly/kingworkshops to choose a date and register.