I woke this morning to learn that the levy is considered to be passing with a growing lead. That lead amounts to less than 1% still… 50.3668% in favor and 49.6332% opposed. I will not hold my breath, but will wait until the measures are certified in a few weeks.
Meantime, I received a comment on the second post on this topic, from a thoughtful fellow-Babbler.
Finally, I want to congratulate my fellow Washingtonians on a REALLY GREAT turnout this year! Sometimes an off-year election gets 25 or 30% voter turnout at best. This year, the overall turnout of registered voters in the state was 48.2617% — with the least active county (Franklin in Eastern Washington) at 42.1874%! The most involved voters are in Columbia County (65.0142%), Garfield (69.0604%), Wahkiakum (66.3436%) and Lincoln (65.7975%). I note that three of those four are in Eastern Washington, where if the entire county voted they would account for less than half of one percent of the people who voted this time. Yes, EVERY vote counts! King County, the most populous county in the state had only 43.6954% voter turnout. No wonder they have trouble passing stuff! I am disappointed that my own county, the seat of state government, which has gone to ALL mail-in balloting had only 49.1892% — people couldn’t be bothered to find a stamp or a drop-box?!? Check out the numbers for your county here!
And I am reminded that a good topic for a later post would be the perceived and real inequities when more affluent and more populous locations vote on the same ballot items as less affluent or populous locations.