Prove election officials wrong with high turnout
- THE OLYMPIAN | • Published October 25, 2009
Election Day is still a little over a week away, but the voting is well under way.
Since early last week, voters here in South Sound and across the state have had their vote-by-mail ballots in their possession, along with statewide and county voters’ pamphlets to provide candidate position statements, the full texts of Initiative 1033 and Referendum 71 and guidance on the mechanics of voting and delivery of ballots to election officials.
There’s really no excuse at this point for a voter not to cast an informed vote.
But far too many voters look at the off-year elections with indifference, opting to sit on the sidelines until the 2010 election year when statewide contests and congressional seats will be up for grabs.
Secretary of State Sam Reed, no stranger to the nuances and realities of voter turnout after more than 30 years as a county, then state, election official, predicted a 51 percent voter turnout statewide by the time the ballots are counted Nov. 3.
He would love the voters to prove him wrong by turning out in far greater numbers.
“It’s sad to think of nearly half the electorate sitting this one out, particularly when so much is at stake,” Reed said in his get-out-the-vote prepared message.
Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman estimated a county wide turnout of roughly 60 percent. However, she admitted her higher number might be somewhat wishful thinking.
“In the odd-year elections, we’re typically in the low 50s,” Wyman said of the county vote total.
Both voter participation rates stand in sharp contrast to the 85 percent turnout in last year’s presidential and gubernatorial election year.
The state has nearly 3,576,000 registered voters. That means more than 1.7 million voters are expected to abstain from voting.
There’s a certain irony in the low voter participation rate when local government races dominate the ballot.
Think about it. What political decisions effect daily life the most? Isn’t it the ones that determine land-use zoning in your neighborhood, decide which congested roadways will receive funding for improvements, decide which books children read in school or determine howl long it will take responders to reach your home during a medical emergency or fire?
Those are all local decisions made by locally elected county commissioners, city council members, school board members, fire district commissioners and other nonpartisan elected officials.
What responsible citizen wouldn’t want to have a say in who occupies the council seats at city hall or the commission seats at the county courthouse?
“These are the elections that truly matter,” Wyman said.
It’s also true that some of these local races are not contested. Incumbents oftentimes run unopposed and that’s unfortunate.
But at the same time there are some hotly contested races in just about every community.
Look at the City of Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and outlying towns and cities and say with a straight face that aren’t clear choices to be made. The same holds true for the two county wide races involving seats on the Port of Olympia and Thurston County commissions.
If those elections aren’t enough to whet your appetite, there are two hotly contested statewide ballot measures:
• Initiative 1033, which would tie the growth of state, county and city revenues to inflation and population growth, except for voter- approved revenue increases.
• Referendum 71, which extends the rights, responsibilities and obligations of married spouses to same-sex and senior domestic partners, short of marriage.
Voting is not just a right, it’s a responsibility. Elections can be decided by the barest of margins, so every vote can, and does, count.
Use the county and state voters’ pamphlets to familiarize yourself with the issues.
Follow the pre-election coverage provided by the media. Listen to what the candidates have to say. Discuss and debate the issues with friends, neighbors and family members.
Then, most important, vote.
