King County’s record vote against Eyman’s I‑517 could climb above seventy percent

Though most of Wash­ing­ton’s thir­ty-nine coun­ties are break­ing strong­ly against I‑517, nowhere is the out­come more lop­sided than in King Coun­ty, which has vot­ed down most of Tim Eyman’s ini­tia­tives over the years.

Vot­ers in King are defeat­ing I‑517 by an enor­mous mar­gin. In fact, the gap between the yes vote and the no vote is actu­al­ly larg­er than the yes vote.

And this is despite an extreme­ly favor­able bal­lot title.

As of last night, 30.88% of votes tal­lied and report­ed in King Coun­ty were in favor of I‑517, while a whop­ping 69.12% were opposed. If late-arriv­ing bal­lots break even hard­er against I‑517, we could see the no vote climb above sev­en­ty percent.

But even if that does­n’t hap­pen, 69.12% is already a record. The pre­vi­ous high-water mark for a vote against an Eyman ini­tia­tive in King Coun­ty was set four years ago, in 2009, when 68.60% of vot­ers opposed Eyman’s I‑1033. That vote sur­passed the pre­vi­ous record of 67.05%, set in 2004 against Eyman’s I‑892.

It would real­ly be some­thing if we could get to 70% or above, and knock sup­port for I‑517 down into the high twen­ties. That’s some­thing I know I’d like to see.

King Coun­ty’s neigh­bors Pierce and Sno­homish are also turn­ing I‑517 down by healthy mar­gins. 62.26% of Sno­homish vot­ers are reject­ing I‑517, while 59.65% of Pierce vot­ers are doing the same. With King, Pierce, and Sno­homish all aligned, I‑517 is going down in flames. Every oth­er key swing coun­ty is also turn­ing I‑517 down, even Clark Coun­ty, which often exhibits a lib­er­tar­i­an streak.

Rur­al coun­ties, how­ev­er, are split on I‑517.

Many are firm­ly against, just like their urban and sub­ur­ban cousins. But some are for. It’s a fas­ci­nat­ing list, con­sist­ing of Wahki­akim, Cowlitz, Okanogan, Yaki­ma, Klick­i­tat, Grant, Asotin, Fer­ry, Stevens, and Pend Oreille.

With the excep­tion of Yaki­ma, all of these coun­ties are sparse­ly pop­u­lat­ed, and each have few­er inhab­i­tants than one small city in King Coun­ty, so they are not impact­ing the out­come. The pop­u­lous coun­ties of east­ern Wash­ing­ton are all against I‑517.

With the excep­tion of the afore­men­tioned I‑892 and I‑1033, no Eyman ini­tia­tive has ever received this kind of shel­lack­ing. It’s quite a vic­to­ry, and we are going to be savor­ing it for a long time, even as we work to get rid of Tim Eyman’s push polls and orga­nize oppo­si­tion to any schemes he tries to qual­i­fy for the 2014 ballot.