By news intern Garrett McCulloch

Your ballot, which you should really use for voting, will be sent to your mailbox on October 16. You probably have some idea already of who you'll vote for for county executive, mayor, city council... and—wait, charter amendments? What the fuck are these?

Whenever the county wants to change its charter (basically the county's constitution), the changes are put to a public vote. Usually the amendments just clean up unnecessary language or other little technical issues. There are four this year (and one of them, the fourth one, is kind of important):

Charter Amendment No. 1, Transitory Provisions: When the King County government merged with Metro in 1992, a bunch of stuff was put into the county charter to help the merger along. The merger is complete, so these provisions are basically obsolete.

Charter Amendment No. 2, Work Programs and Allotments: A section of the charter refers to budget processes established in 1969 that the county doesn't use anymore. This repeals that section.

Charter Amendment No. 3, Charter Review: Every ten years, the county executive appoints a commission that recommends charter amendments (just like these). This amendment would require the county council to confirm the executive's appointees.

Charter Amendment No. 4, High Conservation Value Properties: Way down at the bottom is the one you need to pay attention to. This makes it a lot harder for the county to sell off or otherwise change areas designated as open space. Changes would have to pass the council by a seven-of-nine supermajority and the county would have to schedule public hearings.

That's all. Hope you're still awake.