It’s Top Two Election Day in Washington State — don’t forget to vote!

Read­ers, a reminder that today is the last day of the August 2015 Top Two Elec­tion, the elim­i­na­tion round of our dys­func­tion­al two-part gen­er­al elec­tion system.

Bal­lots must be post­marked or returned by a drop box by 8 PM tonight, or they won’t count. Be sure yours is in, and then remind friends and fam­i­ly to vote, too. Chances are, many of them haven’t. Don’t assume — ask!

Par­tic­i­pa­tion so far in this elec­tion has been utter­ly abysmal, with turnout well below twen­ty per­cent statewide, and even worse than that in the state’s three biggest coun­ties, which account for around two-thirds of the population.

• In King Coun­ty, turnout cracked 15% last night
• Sno­homish is at 13.8%
• Pierce is at 12.3% (worst in the state!)

Aver­age statewide turnout is cur­rent­ly 16.2%, far below Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman’s pre­dic­tion of twen­ty-six per­cent (which itself is very low).

Dou­glas Coun­ty cur­rent­ly has the best turnout, with 46% of three hun­dred and twen­ty-two vot­ers par­tic­i­pat­ing. (Only a frac­tion of the elec­torate were sent bal­lots; most of the coun­ty does­n’t have a Top Two election).

Tiny Garfield Coun­ty has the sec­ond best turnout, with over 37% of 1,522 vot­ers par­tic­i­pat­ing. Pacif­ic Coun­ty, home to com­mu­ni­ties like Long Beach and Ilwa­co, is in third place with 35% turnout. How­ev­er, only five hun­dred and six­ty-three of Paci­fic’s vot­ers have a Top Two elec­tion this year.

The team at NPI urges you to be a vot­er and get your bal­lot in. If you would like to use a drop box to return your bal­lot, here is a list of loca­tions for major counties:

• King Coun­ty
• Sno­homish County
• Pierce Coun­ty
• What­com County
• Skag­it County
• Thurston Coun­ty
• Spokane Coun­ty
• Clark Coun­ty

Need help vot­ing? NPI does­n’t endorse or rate can­di­dates for office, but the Pro­gres­sive Voter’s Guide is avail­able if you want to learn more about who’s on your bal­lot. You can also use the offi­cial voter’s pam­phlet pub­lished by your county.

Start­ing tonight, after 8 PM, we will be offer­ing live cov­er­age of elec­tion results here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate. Most coun­ties will only report one batch of results tonight, and not update again till tomor­row afternoon.

The top race we’re watch­ing is the “beau­ty con­test” in the 30th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict between Demo­c­rat Car­ol Gre­go­ry and Repub­li­can Teri Hickel.

Gre­go­ry and Hick­el are each guar­an­teed a spot on the Novem­ber 2015 bal­lot because they were the only ones to file. They nev­er­the­less appear on the August Top Two bal­lot because the posi­tion of state rep­re­sen­ta­tive is par­ti­san, and state-lev­el par­ti­san races always appear on the Top Two ballot.