Learning about the downballot races

It's easy to be overwhelmed by all the races represented on the November ballot, especially during a General Election. Many people, myself included, tend to rely heavily on the Voter Pamphlet when voting on local issues and candidates. It seems intuitive that there would be a tendency to go with name recognition, which would favor incumbents, and research does back this up.

An article in today's P-I reports on statewide races and cites Todd Donovan, a political scientist at Western Washington University.

He points out that many voters don't know what the duties of a particular office are, and do vote in such a way that incumbents are favored.

A survey by local pollster Stuart Elway shows support for incumbents, but also reveals that many voters are remain undecided, a month before the election. Even by election time, some of them are actually likely to leave the downballot spaces blank!

The article goes on to highlight the downballot races and we will be following them here on The Advocate. The races discussed by the P-I were Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor, Lands Commissioner, Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Secretary of State, Auditor and Insurance Commissioner.

Washingtonians need to take an increased interest in these races, because the outcome influences our lives more directly than most of us realize.