Lots of money for Lynnwood votes

Published 7:56 pm Wednesday, October 27, 2010

This year’s Edmonds election continues to be expensive, but Lynnwood’s election is moving into similar territory.

A week before Election Day, Edmonds City Council candidates have raised $113,032 and spent $80,195.

That means that Edmonds candidates have raised $7.80 per vote cast in the last city election and $2.76 for every Edmonds resident. They’ve spent $5.53 for every vote cast two years ago and $1.96 for every man, woman and child in the city.

The amount of money is smaller in Lynnwood, but it’s higher on a per-vote basis — Lynnwood candidates have raised $79,237 and spent $63,758. That’s $12.03 raised and $9.86 spent for every vote cast two years ago. While Lynnwood’s fundraising and spending per vote looks high, it’s because Lynnwood’s voter turnout has been low.

On a per capita basis, Lynnwood candidates have raised $2.22 and spent $1.78 for each resident.

Mill Creek candidates have raised $15,585 and spent $10,076. That’s $3.56 raised and $2.30 spent for everyone who voted two years ago. It’s 85 cents raised and 55 cents spent for every resident.

Mountlake Terrace candidates are at the bottom of the money list, having raised $3,432 and spent $1,337. That’s 84 cents raised and 33 cents spent for everyone who voted two years ago. It’s 16 cents raised and 6 cents spent for everyone in the city.

I got those figures Saturday, so expect them to go up before Election Day.

Still few places to drop ballots

The Lynnwood and Mill Creek libraries are again the only places in South Snohomish County to drop off your ballots for free.

Both will accept ballots from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday and from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Election Day.

The Lynnwood Library also has a voting machine for disabled people. It is open the same hours as the drop box.

The only 24-hour drop box is at the county campus in Everett. The county auditor’s office is open for both handicapped voting and ballot drop off from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Monday; from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday; and from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday.

No initiative ballot problem here

You may have heard that Initiative 1033 is hard to find on the ballot, but that’s only in King County.

The ballots in King County have instructions that fill most of the first column, leaving a small place on the ballot for I-1033, which by state law is the first item on the ballot.

Snohomish County officials tell me that there is no such problem with local ballots.

Zambrano’s apology

A reader pointed out that two of Mountlake Terrace City Councilman John Zambrano’s answers to the Enterprise’s questions last week were copied from other writers.

The reader pointed out that one of Zambrano’s answers was borrowed from copyrighted material and another copied from non-copyrighted material.

Zambrano sent us this apology:

“I would like to apologize to you and your readership for my lack of attention to detail in that I used verbiage from another source in answering your questions without properly citing the authors of same. Rest assured that this will never happen again. I will write letters of apology to the authors as well.

“Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@verizon.net