As expected, Snohomish County sees massive turnout

A divisive presidential race, a hot governor’s contest and a full ballot of local issues on Tuesday led to one of the biggest voter turnouts in memory in Snohomish County.

An estimated 84 percent of the county’s 352,000 registered voters cast ballots, Auditor Bob Terwilliger said.

“The turnout is what we’ve expected it to be. No question,” he said.

Nearly two-thirds of voters voted by mail, but thousands of people still trooped through the rain to the county’s 143 polling places.

Voters were lined up and waiting for poll workers at many locations when doors opened at 7 a.m., and polls remained busy all the way to closing time.

Therese Quinn was awed by the turnout at the Washington State Grange hall where she votes near Lake Stevens.

“It was exciting that so many people have realized that they have a voice,” Quinn said.

There were few surprises in state and local races. One was that initiative guru Tim Eyman of Mukilteo appeared to be facing his first loss for a tax-relief measure. Early returns showed his Initiative 892, a plan to pare the property tax by allowing slot machines in nontribal businesses, trailing by a wide margin in much of the state.

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Tuesday’s crowds made for longer than usual waits at the polls.

“We were greeted with a line of people approximately 30 deep,” said Syd Zenger of Edmonds. “Everything ran smoothly, though, and it didn’t take too long.”

Voting in the county was closely watched by observers from the major political parties and others, including a documentary film crew from the United Kingdom.

The scrutiny was helpful because it should reinforce people’s trust in the process, Terwilliger said.

“I hope the observers who were in play today don’t go away,” he added.

There were some glitches, primarily with touch-screen voting machines. Voters in Silvana and Edmonds reported machines that went blank or signaled a low battery.

The problems likely were linked to the machines not being properly plugged in to power sources, Terwilliger said. No votes were lost, because all votes were stored on an internal memory card.

A more common headache was difficulty getting the touch-screen machines to properly register selections.

Carol Lewellen of Lynnwood said the touch-screen machine she used registered the wrong votes in a couple of races, but she caught the errors before finalizing her ballot.

“I have used electronic voting machines in the past but have never run into this exact problem,” she said.

Terwilliger said he heard about similar problems from election monitors who were present at the polls throughout the day.

“We’ve had some screen calibration issues, apparently,” he said. “Not many, but enough to be noticeable.”

Some of the problems likely were caused by people unfamiliar with touch-screen technology, Terwilliger said. Technicians also needed to recalibrate some of the machines Tuesday because the pressure sensors weren’t working right.

The polls were closing as hockey fans lined up in downtown Everett to watch the Everett Silvertips square off against the Prince George Cougars.

Everett resident Lee Hughes said he made sure to vote early so he wouldn’t miss any of the game. He wasn’t worried about the outcome of the presidential race.

“What’s going to happen will happen. I’d rather watch hockey,” he said.

Ed and Kathy Farrel of Arlington expected election rivalry to find its way onto the ice at the Everett Events Center.

That didn’t happen.

Results showing President George Bush leading Sen. John Kerry were announced between the second and third periods of the game.

The crowd greeted the news with enthusiastic cheers, even though the Tips were trailing 2-0.

“I can’t remember in 49 years that I’ve been here an election being this big of a deal,” Kimberlee Hollinger of Lynnwood said as she waited outside the hockey arena.

Herald writers Nick Patterson and Nik Alvanos contributed to this report.