West Seattle Election Day ’08 has begun!

First: As Election Day begins, remember how Election Season began:
Scenes from the precinct caucuses, almost nine months ago, February 9 – this was the Democratic crowd at Arbor Heights Elementary (photographed that day by Tim):

And this WSB shot captured the lined-up Republican caucus crowd that day at Southwest Community Center:

Now – we will set out shortly to see if lines are greeting poll workers for their last major election (as devoted in-person voters, we will have to bring Kleenex when we go cast our votes). King County Votes is collecting photos and stories about in-person voting, too, so we will probably share ours.

Here are some info-links that may help as we begin Election Day:

If you vote in person: 7 am-8 pm. Where, you ask? Doublecheck here.

If you vote by mail but haven’t sent your ballot in yet, get it postmarked by 8 pm or drop it off at the nearest polling place (list here).

Still dithering over some hot races/issues? Background links on the WSB Election page, where we’ll also have results links tonight as spillover from the home page.

Not sure what to do with the “downticket” races like judges? The 34th District Democrats (WSB sponsor) have a full list of endorsements here; countywide Republicans, here; nonpartisan Muni League‘s list, here.

Election Night parties? Discussed in this WSB Forums thread.

Coverage here? All day and all night. And we’d love to have you be part of it. Send us pix, video links, leave comments, call with tips, whatever, so we can chronicle as much of West Seattle Election Day ’08 (and night) as possible.

Kayleigh November 4, 2008 (5:57 am)

I hope the lines won’t be 7 hours here in Seattle (as they are in some parts of the country, regrettably.) But I think the fact that so many people are willing to wait that long to vote is awesome. We’re a country that, by and large, doesn’t like to wait more than 5 minutes for a cheeseburger at McDonald’s.

—Kayleigh, fellow Kleenex(tm) voter

Alcina November 4, 2008 (7:28 am)

Kayleigh,
It is highly unlikely that we will have long lines here at the polls here in King County because the majority vote by absentee ballot.
Per King County Elections
http://your.kingcounty.gov/elections/200811/mediabriefingkit.pdf there are 1,105,965 registered voters in King County-720,585 are permanent absentees and 385,380 are poll voters.

In the states where you will see the incredibly long lines of people waiting to vote at the polls are mostly the states that don’t allow people to become permanent absentees and vote by mail.

Sandra M November 4, 2008 (7:54 am)

Alcina, thanks for the link and the voting data. Also, in the future we’ll have even more absentee voting. I send in my ballot as early as possible to allow elections workers to properly store it before it’s opened on (or after?) election day. Instead of sorting an onslaught of ballots all at once and at the last minute, staff can be more prepared and efficient. Less room for error that way…

Alcina November 4, 2008 (8:33 am)

King County currently is only one of two counties in WA state that still has poll voting, all the rest of the counties have already gone to all voting by mail.

King County is supposed to move to all mail voting next year.

Although many people, who are currently poll voters, may miss going to the polls, I am a fan of vote-by-mail because it guarantees that there will always be paper ballots. Without paper ballots there is no way to ensure the validity of the vote.

Aim November 4, 2008 (10:26 am)

FYI the “election night parties in this forums thread” link is broken.

Vote by mail is a food idea for the most part. However, it is not accessible for anyone with low vision or who is blind. A close friend of mine said today, “this is the last time I will be able to vote with privacy.” The mailed ballots will require her to ask someone to assist her, which will mean that her vote is no longer private.

I hope there will be reasonable accommodation provided.