West Seattle Tuesday: Election; road work; Admiral; Fauntleroy

Delayed by breaking news, here’s our abbreviated daily preview, with 5 items worth noting before it’s too late:

ELECTION DAY: If you’re using a dropbox (downtown is the closest), your ballot needs to be in it by 8 pm. If you’re mailing your ballot, it has to be postmarked today. More info here. (P.S. USPS says as long as you get your ballot into a collection box before its last scheduled pickup time for today, it’ll have today’s postmark.)

TRAFFIC ALERT #1: SDOT crews are scheduled to start 2 weeks of work replacing concrete panels on 16th Avenue SW at SW Myrtle; details (including traffic logistics) here.

TRAFFIC ALERT #2: Overnight closures of the westbound Spokane Street Viaduct are expected to continue all week – 10 pm to 5 am again tonight; more details here.

ADMIRAL NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION: Monthly meeting at 7 pm, Admiral Congregational Church (California/Hill), with officer elections on the association‘s agenda.

FAUNTLEROY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION: Monthly board meeting tonight for the Fauntleroy Community Association, all welcome, 7 pm at the schoolhouse (9131 California SW).

StringCheese November 8, 2011 (3:34 pm)

I’m fresh from dropping off my ballot at the downtown drop-off. I know I could have mailed it but dropping it off always makes me feel more secure that it will get where it is supposed to go. Well, that an I am of the opinion that requiring a stamp to vote is, in essence, a poll tax.
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ANYWAY… The way they have it set up at the County building on 4th Ave is ridiculous!
1. The box is set far off the street (no drive by and drop it in – which, by the way, works extremely well for the post office) 2. It is on a block that is almost completely devoted to bus stops (so no quick park and run up to drop it off).
3. Of the whopping 2 places where you might be able to pull over, one of those spaces seems to be constantly occupied by an empty police vehicle.
4. The building is located on a tricky part of 4th and they’ve closed Jefferson going west so that you have to detour six extra blocks (or more) to get to the front of the building to find #1,2,3 above.
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Is it unreasonable to think that if you are going to severely reduce the number of drop-boxes (I always used the one on Delridge) that you would make it easy for people to use them?
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A few suggestions King County Elections:
* move the box curbside – à la post office
* move it to a location where people can pull over and jump out for a minute – à la the airport
* RETURN THE BOXES TO THE NEIGHBORHOODS
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And, before anyone “yells” at me in the comments, I am also sending something to KC. Just wanted to warn people who might be headed downtown this evening…

WSB November 8, 2011 (3:40 pm)

Thanks, String. Very helpful. Will share in our other “channels.” We managed to vote a whole day early … and dropped our ballots into the slot inside the WW post office yesterday … Anyone who is interested in having dropboxes returned to WS/WC might consider pinging their elected officials (County Councilmember Joe McDermott, for example, who directly represents this area); we have asked KC Elections about it the past two cycles and nothing has happened (not that we were advocating, just asking). Next year’s election will be big. And if White Center, for example, does indeed have an annexation vote, for them to have no dropbox seems a little inconvenient at the very least. – TR

K November 8, 2011 (4:21 pm)

People always (after rush hour) park there and hop out any way.

metrognome November 8, 2011 (9:07 pm)

the location of the dropbox with no drive-up/drop-off availability and no nearby (accessible) parking is probably a violation of federal civil rights laws for people with disabilities. Maybe I’ll file a complaint with the KC Office of Civil Rights …

Sorry, comment time is over.