Washington students defeat Tim Eyman’s I‑1125, Costco’s I‑1183 in mock election

This after­noon, Sec­re­tary of State Sam Reed’s office announced the results of the annu­al mock elec­tion it con­ducts in schools across Wash­ing­ton State. Stu­dents in grades five through twelve were asked to weigh in on this year’s crop of bal­lot mea­sures, which includes Tim Eyman’s I‑1125, Cost­co’s I‑1183, and SEIU’s I‑1163. Stu­dents respon­si­bly reject­ed the for­mer two and passed the latter.

Here are the results:

Ini­tia­tive 1125 — Mea­sure defeated
Yes — 45.81% (4,933 votes)
No — 5,836% (54.19% votes)

Ini­tia­tive 1183 — Mea­sure defeated
Yes — 43.80% (4,730 votes)
No — 56.20% (6,070 votes)

Ini­tia­tive 1163 — Mea­sure passed
Yes — 53.25% (5,721 votes)
No — 46.75% (5,023 votes)

Of all the mea­sures, I‑1183 received the fewest votes (way to be respon­si­ble, stu­dents!) In King Coun­ty, the no vote on I‑1183 actu­al­ly reached 60%.

That prob­a­bly won’t be the case on Tues­day; we’re expect­ing the actu­al out­come of I‑1183 to be much clos­er. How I‑1183 goes for real may well depend on whether vot­ers in key swing coun­ties like Sno­homish, Kit­sap, and Thurston sup­port or oppose the mea­sure. Last year, the vote on Cost­co’s I‑1100 in many of the big swing coun­ties was fair­ly close. Even in King Coun­ty, a pro­gres­sive strong­hold, Cost­co man­aged to get 48.5% of the vote. The rea­son I‑1100 was­n’t clos­er over­all is because a num­ber of con­ser­v­a­tive, rur­al coun­ties were firm­ly opposed.

Wash­ing­ton stu­dents have tra­di­tion­al­ly reject­ed Tim Eyman ini­tia­tives in mock elec­tions, so I‑1125’s fail­ure is in keep­ing with the his­tor­i­cal trend.

Last year, stu­dents sen­si­bly vot­ed down Eyman’s I‑1053, and in 2009, they reject­ed Eyman’s I‑1033. Stu­dents also approved I‑1098 and R‑52 in last year’s mock elec­tion; the only right wing ini­tia­tive they passed was I‑1107. Inter­est­ing­ly, they also vot­ed for Dino Rossi over Pat­ty Murray.

At least on bal­lot mea­sures, Wash­ing­ton’s stu­dents have a bet­ter track record than Wash­ing­ton’s adults. If only we could swap the results of the bal­lot mea­sures from the real elec­tion with the mock one… we’d be in far, far bet­ter shape at the moment.

Here’s to the defeat of I‑1125 and I‑1183 on Tuesday!