Quick note in case you’re wondering: The second ballot-count update is out for the August 5th election, and the proposal to create a Seattle Park District has widened its lead a bit. Last night, the yes vote was 52.4 percent; today, it’s 52.7 percent. Next ballot-count update will be out by this time tomorrow.
Almost 75% of King County voters did not participate in this vote. Disappointing that 3 out of 4 people can’t be bothered to do anything except complain about our quality of government.
So all the “yes” voters are going to cover my property tax increase…. right?
CJ, not all of King county voted on the parks proposal; it was just Seattle even though the county administers the elections. So those figures are probably inaccurate.
I voted against it, but as usual The Stranger is determined to win an election through chic’ neoliberalism.
Assuming that’s a typo and you meant 75% of Seattle voters. Otherwise, why would non-Seattle residents be voting on it?
The turnout countywide is generally abysmal – while we don’t endorse positions or candidates, we do endorse voting, so I’m voicing that opinion (I’d consider anything short of 90 percent abysmal). Certainly some ballots are still out there, but as of last night, with almost 1.2 million registered voters in the county, fewer than 300,000 ballots had been returned. That’s your 25 percent countywide, for starters.
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https://info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/ballotreturnstats/default.aspx
Interesting. The property owners have even less control over their finances and government if they don’t bother to vote.
Not a typo. I was referring to the King County numbers only because I hadn’t yet seen the local breakdown. As I suspected, it’s not significantly different: 72% of registered Seattle voters did not participate in this vote. So the 52.7% of voters who approved this proposal represent less than 15% of Seattle voters.
a 25% vote return is a sad reflection on our society.. especially when all you have to do is mark it and mail it in
It’s a primary. Primaries usually have a low voter turn-out. Which probably did not escape the notice of the Mayor.
This is a typical tactic for “stealing” an election. The advocates put the issue on a special elections ballot, for which they know voter participation will be low.
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Last night was also the “night out,” and these advocates knew it. When people’s attention is focused elsewhere, it makes a low turnout even lower.
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Easy math. The lower the turnout, the fewer votes they need to win the election.
I’m calling foul on cjboffoli. Elections are decided by those of us who vote. Those who chose not to vote have made their own choice, and they do not count, they chose not to have a say. Voter turnout is absolutely irrelevant, elections are decided by those who care enough to vote. So no, this was not decided by 15% of voters, it was approved by 53% of voters. I have never missed an election in my entire life, and I’m deeply offended that you think my yes vote matters less just because some people chose not to vote.
Good points AmandaKH and JoAnne.
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Not to mention the mayor’s husband benefits greatly from the parks levy passing.
Deeply offended? Oh my. Would someone please get Gotb a glass of milk and a Lorna Doone?
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My criticism wasn’t directed towards the outcome of the vote but the failure of a democratic system that depends on participation. Routinely low voter turnout is concerning for a number of reasons, one of which is articulated by JoAnne above. But one should also wonder why, in a city with such a high level of literacy and education so many people are disengaged with governance and why so many candidates ran unopposed. Is there a better way to conduct a vote? Is it too hard to find a stamp to put on a ballot? I wonder what this means about the level of civic involvement in Seattle, a city where there seems to be so much discord in public decision making.
JoAnne, I’m not sure why you think last night being Seattle Night Out had anything to do with this election. I’m assuming you are a registered voter and that you know we vote by mail now. I sent my ballot is well over a week ago and I assure you that I was not distracted by the impending night out. I really don’t think anyone else was, either. As far as tactics for “stealing” the election, one could claim the same thing in reverse–on account of low turnout it would have taken a smaller number of people to defeat the measure, too.
my ballot return envelope was totally stuck, as in, sealed. I had to cut it open, insert my ballot, tape it shut, etc.
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I wonder how many votes could be lost this way? I certainly hope my vote was counted. I read an article in the times regarding this, and apparently I was one of many to receive a sealed ballot return envelope.
Both of ours were. We had shared the county’s link in a few spots previously, and included it in yesterday’s daily preview, with the photo of the ballot van crew: https://westseattleblog.com/2014/08/election-day-night-out-and-what-else-is-up-on-your-west-seattle-tuesday/
I wasn’t going to jump in on this but I am because I had to. cjboffoli is right on. The lack of voter turn out is a disgrace. To ignore your civic responsibility is a disgrace. Voting is easy. Making a decision on how to vote is often not easy. There is enough information available as well as discourse to help guide you through your decision making process. Open your eyes to the world. People walk for miles to cast a vote, risk their lives to cast a vote, die in an attempt to cast a vote, fight to cast a vote. And we choose NOT to vote. Absolutely disgraceful.
Voter turn out should be 90%+.
Low voter turnout is disgrace. Its a right and one you shouldn’t ignore. I find it funny that when the very one’s who don’t vote are the one’s who complain like renters for example. Property owners just have to jack up the rents again. They are the one’s who should be voting NO on these types of issues that affect them. If rents keep sky rocketing they aren’t going to be able to afford to work and live in Seattle. It will be too late when they’ve figured it out.
@sittingbird – You say “…People walk for miles to cast a vote, risk their lives to cast a vote, die in an attempt to cast a vote, fight to cast a vote. And we choose NOT to vote. Absolutely disgraceful…” Those people that do that are not voting on tax hikes, but important things like who will be president. I am really tired of all these votes that happen each year. Can we have a one time to vote each year and thus we might have a better turn out. They are stealing an election with multiple voting times each year. What do you think of that?
Ballot return rate in Seattle so far is 33.7%, 31.8% in the 34th, with votes still coming in:
https://info.kingcounty.gov/kcelections/ballotreturnstats/default.aspx
I’m not buying into the hand wringing of people being disconnected/distrusting of gov’t or whatever. That’s just speculation, we can’t assume that’s why people don’t vote. But there are ways to get more people to vote:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/09/economist-explains-10
S says “I am really tired of all these votes that happen each year.” Seriously? Is opening a piece of mail, marking a few ovals, and then mailing it back in really too grueling for you? Paying rent must really be an ordeal…that’s 12 times every year! And if by “they” (as in “they are stealing an election”) you mean “people who can be bothered to vote” I can’t argue with you there.
S asks “Can we have a one time to vote each year and thus we might have a better turn out.”
Ummm…. how do you propose we hold both primary and general election on the same day?
Remember, your vote “does” count, unless you didn’t understand what you were voting on,voted the wrong way, or it was nullified by a govt agency doing an end run claiming an “emergency”,among other things. Love the self righteous commenters. Always. Many of these elections are predetermined, just gotta round up the sheep to get them to the trough.
@S, you didn’t really mean “stealing”, did you? That doesn’t make sense.
Sorry, I didn’t see JoAnne’s comment when I wrote that. I still disagree, for the reasons – mentions above.
flimflam-
my husband’s was sealed shut too. weird. and it’s not like we store our mail anywhere super humid. i mean, both our ballots came the same day, and were stored in the same place. his return envelope was sealed shut and mine was not….
oh well, we dropped them off at the stadium.
Hold the Primary only and hold off things like levys to general election when it really counts.
I hope I am completely incorrect in my understanding of the MPD and that faith hope and goodwill of the city council will carry us through. Unfortunately, in a court of law we haven’t much of a chance and in business those concepts aren’t on the table.
I guess we should give a nice welcome to the private contractors to be gracing our fair city. Some of them are from out of state so perhaps we could show them around. But then again, they’ve been here for awhile now.
It will be interesting (in a really depressing way) to watch this all play out. How long do you think until the waterfront park will be done? We can watch our tax dollars being spent on overpriced consultants and lucrative contracts.
You know, we pay to have the amusements built, then we pay to enjoy them. Don’t think that this isn’t in part what this is about.I wonder if we will be able to bring in our own water or if it will be like the m’s games where you can’t.
Anyway, hopefully in a couple of years my predictions will be entirely wrong.
If we had online voting we’d have a much higher turnout. Most people pay bills online, shop online and do taxes online. Why not vote online? You could verify it just like turbo tax does for your taxes.
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I suspect that Gerrymanderers would not be too happy about this though.
So what happens if all those ‘sealed’ envelopes that were received by the voters were for some reason nullified in the count as being tampered with. I know, I know … They ‘should’ be investigating questionable ballots…. That might make a big difference in the outcome of this vote.
WSince86, if you are concerned whether or not your vote counted, click here to go to the King County Elections ballot tracker and check.
Sorry, comment time is over.
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