: ( Sean Nelson
All nine seats on the city council up at once, the largest property tax levy in the city's history, a never-before-tried campaign financing scheme, and fucking pangolins. If all of that wasn't enough to get you to turn in your ballot, I don't know what would be.
But, for plenty of you, it wasn't.
Voter turnout in this year's general election, which happened last night, is depressingly low so far and trending toward being equally sad even once all the last minute ballots still in the mail have been counted. So far, the King County Elections Office has received ballots from just 27 percent of registered voters in the county. That number is slightly higher within the city at just under 30 percent.
In the last handful of off-year elections, turnout in the city and county has ranged from 47 to 58 percent. In 2013, 48 percent of registered voters in the county turned in a ballot and Seattle did even better with 52.5 percent.
Yes, more ballots are headed for King County Elections and that tally of 27 percent for the county / 30 percent for the city will creep up. But it's still looking bad.
Ben Anderstone, a local political analyst—and, despite his endorsement of Bill Bradburd, a friend of Slog because he e-mails me wonky political insights at 3 a.m. the morning after an election—believes ballot returns so far indicate we're on track to hit about 36 percent voter turnout in Seattle. Unusually high last-minute voting could push that number toward 40 percent, which is still notably below previous years.
It's worth noting that in 2013 and 2009, mayoral races were on the ballot. Those tend to excite more people than the city council. But 2011 and 2007 had no mayoral races. They did have five council races and a couple ballot measures, and turnout was still somewhere around 10 percent higher in those years than what 2015 looks likely to be.
What the hell, you guys?
Anderstone agrees this year's turnout is a "big disappointment," but says Seattle's not alone. "Seattle is actually doing better than most Puget Sound cities," Anderstone writes. "The statewide climate is just really sleepy, and city council redistricting wasn't enough to stir the excitement of less regular voters."
One result of such low turnout—when combined with the new district system, in which most council members are voted in only by certain parts of town—is that it doesn't actually take that many votes to get a job inside city hall. While about 419,000 people are registered to vote in the City of Seattle, some council candidates will get elected with fewer than 10,000 votes in their favor.
Take District 2, for example, covering the southeastern portion of the city. There, almost 50,000 people are registered to vote, but only 12,900 turned in ballots—the lowest turnout of any district so far. As of right now, incumbent Bruce Harrell is winning in the district with 4,909 votes. His challenger, Tammy Morales has 4,020, and about 3,500 ballots still have to be counted.
In Capitol Hill's District 3, which has the highest turnout so far, about 20,900 people voted. So far, Kshama Sawant is leading with about 8,200 votes. About 4,800 District 3 ballots are left to count. (We're expecting the next update on results around 4:30 p.m.)
John Wyble—a consultant who this year worked with Zack Hudgins, a candidate for King County Elections director who highlighted low turnout in his campaign—blames two factors for low voter turnout. First, he says the national political climate has created "fatigue" among voters.
"People are kind of like, 'I don’t know what politics really gets me here,'" Wyble says.
Second, Wyble believes there is something "structurally wrong in Washington state. We’ve done something to put the thumb on the turnout."
Wyble blames elections offices for not doing more to offer postage-free ballot envelopes, ballots in more languages, and more drop boxes. Hudgins campaigned hard on those issues, but his opponent Julie Wise won with a big margin last night. Wise also promised to install more ballot boxes if she was elected, and we'll be waiting. In future years, Wyble says special interest organizations need to not just endorse candidates and advise their members on how to vote, but do more to actually encourage those members to vote in the first place.
District elections promised to open city hall to a whole new type of candidate and give voters more access to their elected officials. But with huge swaths of the city uninspired to vote and mostly traditional business-backed candidates leading in early results, have districts really changed anything at all?
"This is first election I’ve seen where almost every race except Sally Bashaw [who ran in District 7 downtown] was competitive," Wyble says. "Every race was somewhat competitive. That’s new in Seattle and I think that’s a huge victory for districts."
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