I‑1183 passing easily; Costco appears to have succeeded in buying the election

Good evening from Seattle!

Near­ly all the coun­ties that have report­ed elec­tion results so far show a fair­ly lop­sided out­come on Cost­co’s Ini­tia­tive 1183, which aims to dereg­u­late and pri­va­tize the state’s liquor system.

As of 8:50 PM, the yes vote stood at 59.74%, while the no vote stood at 40.26%.

The results look fair­ly deci­sive. At this point, it’s safe to say that Cost­co has just suc­cess­ful­ly pur­chased an elec­tion, thanks to a hefty $22.5 mil­lion plus war chest.

At present,  I‑1183 is only fail­ing in Asotin, Cowlitz, Garfield, and Wahki­akum coun­ties, which are all fair­ly rur­al. Pro­tect Our Com­mu­ni­ties’ mes­sage appears to have res­onat­ed there, but unfor­tu­nate­ly it has­n’t res­onat­ed any­where else.

Whether I‑1183 actu­al­ly becomes part of the Revised Code of Wash­ing­ton is anoth­er mat­ter. The ini­tia­tive, which isn’t very well writ­ten, may end up being chal­lenged in court pri­or to the first week in Decem­ber, when ini­tia­tives go into effect.