Election 2014: After five days of ballot-counting, a look ahead for transit, preschool, class-size measures

November 9, 2014 12:04 am
|    Comments Off on Election 2014: After five days of ballot-counting, a look ahead for transit, preschool, class-size measures
 |   West Seattle news | West Seattle politics

Today (Sunday) will be the first day King County Elections has *not* released updated results since Tuesday night. That night’s ballot count was followed by two daily Wednesday-Friday and one more Saturday evening. Here are three notes following the latter:

TRANSIT FUNDING (Transportation Benefit District Prop 1):
Yes 61.14% – 109,139 votes
No 38.86% – 69,380 votes

What’s next? Since Wednesday’s media briefing (WSB coverage here) with the mayor and county executive, Metro general manager Kevin Desmond has sent an e-mail message to bus-alert subscriber lists, including this:

… We’re working with the city now to flesh out the agreement, including the exact route improvements. It will be submitted to the city and county councils in December for adoption early next year.

The need is clear. Seattle voters, like transit riders across the county, undoubtedly have experienced the packed buses that have come with growing ridership. Metro is on track to deliver 120 million rides countywide this year—a record high—and our financial situation has not allowed us to expand to meet the demand.

Our just-released 2014 Service Guidelines Report, which analyzes the performance of our transit system and identifies investment needs, found that Metro should be providing 15 percent more service to meet current demand countywide. …

(That report does not appear to be online yet; it wasn’t linked, and we could only find the 2013 version. We’ll check on Monday.)

PRESCHOOL (Seattle Propositions 1A/1B):
Prop 1A – 31.29% – 49,393 votes
Prop 1B – 68.71% – 108,477 votes

What’s next? Thanks to Diane for forwarding e-mail about meetings to discuss how the resulting Seattle Preschool Program will be planned and implemented. Two meetings, both on December 6th, are in West Seattle, at Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, the first focused on curriculum, the second on teacher training/coaching. They and others around the city, starting later this month, are listed on this flyer.

SMALLER CLASS SIZE (Statewide Initiative 1351):
Yes 50.49% 945,851 votes
No 49.51% 927,356 votes

What’s next? This trailed on election night, but now supporters have declared victory. How this will be made to happen, the Legislature has to work out, as the text says.

SEE FULL, UPDATED LOCAL AND STATE RESULTS: If there’s something else you want to check on, King County’s results are all linked here; statewide races and measures are all linked here.

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