NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Wednesday, October 14th, 2015

Ballots mailed for 2015 general election across Washington State

Elec­tions offi­cials across Wash­ing­ton State announced today that bal­lots are in the mail to the vast major­i­ty of the state’s three and half mil­lion reg­is­tered vot­ers, fol­low­ing last mon­th’s dis­tri­b­u­tion of bal­lots to over­seas and mil­i­tary voters.

“This elec­tion may not have the siz­zle of the pres­i­den­tial-year elec­tion like we’ll have in 2016, but we have hun­dreds of local can­di­dates and mea­sures to decide, so it’s a big-deal elec­tion as far as I’m con­cerned,” Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman said.

Her office pro­vid­ed some sta­tis­tics on the election:

  • In all, there are 3,924 can­di­dates fac­ing off in 3,043 races across the state
  • There are total of 166 mea­sures on the bal­lot across the state
  • King Coun­ty alone has 460 can­di­dates for 331 offices and 20 mea­sures on the bal­lot [includ­ing two coun­ty­wide measures]

Wyman also not­ed that two major cities, Seat­tle and Yaki­ma, are tran­si­tion­ing to dis­trict-based city coun­cil elec­tions this year.

“I urge vot­ers to take a lit­tle time to study the Vot­ers Pam­phlet, cam­paign mate­ri­als, the online and video Vot­ers Guides, and then cast a bal­lot prompt­ly. You’ll feel good about it and it’s good to remem­ber that self-gov­ern­ment works best when lots of us take part and give our two cents,’ Wyman said.

Wyman is pre­dict­ing statewide turnout of forty-six percent.

King Coun­ty offi­cials think turnout in the state’s largest juris­dic­tion will be above that. They’re fore­cast­ing turnout of forty-eight percent.

“Vot­ing is one of the most impor­tant actions we do as cit­i­zens, so be sure to make it count by get­ting your bal­lot returned on time,” said retir­ing King Coun­ty Elec­tions Direc­tor Sher­ril Huff in a statement.

The dead­line to reg­is­ter by mail or online for this elec­tion has passed. How­ev­er, it’s still pos­si­ble to reg­is­ter in per­son for anoth­er week and half. The dead­line to reg­is­ter in per­son is the close of busi­ness on Mon­day, Octo­ber 26th.

Bal­lots must be returned to post offices or put in out­go­ing mail by the last col­lec­tion time on Novem­ber 3rd, or returned to a drop box no lat­er than 8 PM. King Coun­ty offi­cials want the pub­lic to know they offer per­ma­nent drop box loca­tions, sched­uled bal­lot drop-off vans and Acces­si­ble Vot­ing Cen­ters.

On statewide mea­sures, NPI urges a NO vote on Tim Eyman’s I‑1366, a yes vote on Paul Allen’s I‑1401, and a “Main­tained” vote on Eyman’s push polls (advi­so­ry votes).

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