Last-minute votes roll in on a tense election day

Published 4:52 pm Tuesday, November 3, 2020

EVERETT — It was a quiet and rainy around Snohomish County Tuesday before a stormy election night.

Roughly 71.2% of registered voters had already turned in ballots by Monday evening, almost exactly in line with state turnout figures released at the same time — 72.7 %.

Unlike Seattle and cities nationwide, downtown businesses in Everett were not boarded up in case of possible unrest. In Snohomish, there were a few pickup trucks waving “Trump” and “Culp” signs around town, just like any other day.

In Mountlake Terrace, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen and supporters held signs in a final appeal for votes.

Even though 368,000 people had already submitted ballots in the county, a stream of last-minute voters headed to local drop boxes with envelopes Tuesday in the historic presidential election between former vice president Joseph Biden and President Donald Trump.

Carole Defillo, 54, came from Monroe to turn in her ballot at the Snohomish County Campus in Everett.

“I am concerned about making sure my ballot gets counted,” she said.

Rather than putting her signed envelope in the drop box on Wall Street, where there was no one waiting, she walked through the rain to the voting office in hopes of getting an “I voted” sticker.

About 10 others waited in line outside the building mid-morning. Defillo said she was prepared to wait an hour, but after learning they weren’t handing out stickers, she put her ballot in the drop box.

It was still worth the trip.

“I work from home and it gives me a reason to get out of the house,” she said.

C.J. Ford, 27, of Snohomish, slid his ballot into an Everett drop box on his way to work at his courier company.

“It was normal, just like dropping off mail,” Ford said. “Political tensions are high, but I feel like they’ve always been high. There might be years where it might crest or peak or valley. Everyone’s angry during politics season.”

Not him.

“I got really into it in 2016,” Ford said. “That was the first time I was really like, ‘Oh, politics. I’m an adult. I should pay attention to this.’”

He doesn’t plan to stay up late to watch the results.

“I’ll find it out tomorrow,” he said.

Business was slow Tuesday at the Stag Barber Shop, where Snohomish barber Bob Martin opened in defiance of Gov. Jay Inslee’s stay-home coronavirus order.

“This election will show which way it’s going to go,” Martin said. “If there’s any social unrest, we have a way of taking care of our own problems in Snohomish.”

As for Martin, 80, he planned to go home after the shop closed.

“What will be will be,” he said.

An afternoon trip to the gym was a priority for Bernard Moody, the Republican candidate for the 38th Legislative District against Democrat June Robinson, a veteran in state politics.

“I’m going to get my workout in to get rid of this corona fat I’ve accumulated in all these months,” said Moody, 60.

Then he planned to start collecting his signs around town. Well, all that would fit in his car, that is. The first-time candidate bought 400 for his campaign and wanted to leave a good impression, win or lose.

“I don’t like that eye pollution any more than anybody else does,” he said.

He was in no hurry to know the outcome of the election.

“Quite honestly, I don’t want to watch the results, so I’m trying to find something that I can do,” Moody said. “I want to have a prayer meeting with a couple of friends, and pray for our nation and a peaceful transition regardless of the results.”

Andrea Brown: abrown@heraldnet.com; 425339 -3443. Twitter @reporterbrown.