Some voters held their noses, others reveled in an exercise that was purely partisan, but in the end it doesn’t appear as if the state’s first closed primary election in 70 years rattled the way votes were cast Tuesday in Snohomish County.
Because of court decisions, voters were required to pick their candidates for most state and federal offices from only one political party.
Voters picked a preference – Republican, Democrat or Libertarian – in about 90 percent of the 86,859 ballots counted so far, county Auditor Bob Terwilliger said Wednesday.
Some officials feared that restrictions on the primary would keep many voters at home and trigger anger among those who showed up at that the polls. Neither forecast proved true, Terwilliger said.
Up to 40,000 additional absentee mail-in ballots are expected to be counted on Friday. That means about 35 percent of the county’s 330,000 registered voters participated in the primary, a turnout typical in a presidential election year, Terwilliger said.
Election workers received training in advance of the primary on how to defuse any angry confrontations.
“In the end, it was preventative, but not necessary, Terwilliger said. “The voters were pretty polite.”
That’s doesn’t mean they were pleased to find their candidate choices limited, judging from comments offered by members of The Herald’s Reader Network.
“I did not enjoy voting only one party’s ballot at all,” Mark Mahnkey, 55, of Silver Lake, said. “There are good candidates on both sides of the aisle, and I was usurped from expressing my support if they appeared on a ballot I did not vote. I found it distasteful, and I felt used, abused, upbraided, strung out, strung along, jacked around and disenfranchised.”
Chris Knapp, 39, of Everett, said he found the new primary format frustrating in part because “it constrains the independent spirit of Washington voters.”
“Worst ballot ever!” said Travis Hall, 27, of Gold Bar. “It chooses the rights of the party over the rights of the people, which is never a good thing.”
Charlene Dickey, 73, of Oak Harbor, and Jeanne Rickey, 61, of Mill Creek, both found the single-party ballot layouts complex or confusing.
Others were either happy to find a voting system similar to what they’ve known in other states, or surprised by the uproar.
Gloria Foster, 60, of Everett, said she thought the new ballots were easy to use and didn’t change how she votes.
“I honestly didn’t see what all the fuss was about,” said Sheri Croft, 40, of Everett. “For me, it was not difficult to figure out how to fill out the ballot. Also, I usually vote one party only, so that wasn’t a problem for me, either.”
Tuesday’s election pared the field for the political parties, but two contested nonpartisan positions were settled by the vote. Voters elected Michael Downes and Eric Lucas as Snohomish County Superior Court judges.
Lucas upended three-term incumbent David Hulbert of Lake Stevens, the first time in memory an established Superior Court judge has been voted out of office. Hulbert could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Everett lawyer Frank Wilson, who was on Hulbert’s election steering committee, said the campaign’s oversight of not sending in a photo and statement for a local voter’s pamphlet hurt the 12-year veteran’s chances.
“I don’t think that helped at all,” Wilson said. “There’s not anything good that comes from the person reading that.”
He said there was confusion over whether local and state voter pamphlets would include the judges. Both were produced, and Hulbert’s information was in the state pamphlet but not in the one sent to voters by the county auditor.
Lucas won’t take office until early January.
Downes, of Everett, was appointed by the governor to the post in July, but had to stand for election to retain his seat on the bench. Michael Hall, a general practice lawyer from Edmonds, ran against him.
A 21-year veteran of the Snohomish County Prosecutor’s Office, Downes received high marks in a recent poll of county lawyers.
Reporter Scott North: 425-339-3431 or north@heraldnet.com.
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