 New counties must have a population of at least 2,000 and no county can be reduced to a population below 4,000 due to partitioning to create a new county.To alter the area of a county, the state constitution requires a petition of the "majority of the voters" in that area.A number of county partition proposals in the 1990s interpreted this as a majority of people who voted, until a 1998 ruling by the Washington Supreme Court clarified that they would need a majority of registered voters.