Elections draw interest, but few voters

By Jim Haley

Herald Writer

A "disappointingly low" voter turnout Tuesday left election officials scratching their heads over whether Snohomish County voters are disinterested or simply distracted by the recent events.

Even the steadiest of voters, those who cast the mail-in absentee votes, appeared to be avoiding the primary election, which many observers thought would generate more interest than normal in ballots containing mainly local races.

"I’ve never seen an election where the absentee turnout was less than 60 percent," said Scott Konopasek, election manager for the Snohomish County Auditor’s Office.

The office sent out 150,000 absentee ballots, and only 39 percent of them (around 60,000) had been returned as of Tuesday, Konopasek said. He couldn’t speculate how many will be returned in the next few days.

Things weren’t much better at the polling places.

For all the flag-waving this week, very few people were sporting "I voted" stickers Tuesday.

A spot survey of several polling places in Snohomish County late afternoon Tuesday showed a paltry turnout for the primary vote, and election inspectors were puzzled.

Rita Hooper, inspector at Everett Precinct 12 at the Everett public library location, reported less than 90 voters by 3:30 p.m.

"It’s been very, very quiet," ballot judge Cora Sponek said. "I thought people would rush to the polls to do their patriotic duty."

Many of those who did vote were regular voters, who also were surprised by the low turnout.

At Everett Alternative School, the voting place for four precincts, Bob Anderson had just voted and said people need to support all levels of government.

"As much as it’s screwed up on the local level, people still need to vote," he said.

Konopasek put it this way: "It’s very low, disappointingly low."

Why?

"It’s a very small primary election," Konopasek said. "Most people have only one or two issues to vote on."

That could account for the disinterest.

On the other hand, election officials have been wondering for the last few days whether the East Coast terrorist attacks captivated voters’ attention to the point where they would neglect to go to the polls.

However, Konopasek thought that interest in the state’s only two legislative races to be decided this election would have fueled participation.

Voters in southwest Snohomish County — from Mukilteo to Woodway — have been barraged by advertising in a hotly contested House seat that could determine the majority in the state House of Representatives.

Two Democrats — D. J. Wilson and Brian Sullivan — were running close races for the right to meet Republican Joe Marine in the November general election.

That race is one reason why Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed was in Everett to watch part of the counting.

"Snohomish County is kind of ground zero of the election this year," Reed said.

Although a lot of voters didn’t bother to go to the polls, Reed said he has heard from election workers in other counties who talk about people making it a point to vote after the terrorist attacks.

"They want to make a statement we are a democracy, and we’re going to show the terrorists they can’t deter that," Reed said.

In north Snohomish County, former Republican legislator John Koster got nearly 50 percent of the vote in a four-person race. But incumbent Mike Ashley easily beat Democratic opponent Chris Laird to move on in the Council District 1 race.

In Council District 4, Republican Dave Schmidt apparently won the Republican nomination to face off against Dave Gossett for an open seat in November.

In Everett, Mayor Ed Hansen had a commanding lead over three other candidates, and it appears that two incumbent city council members — Dan Warnock and David Simpson — will move on to November, but both are trailing challengers.

In Lynnwood, Don Gough, Mike McKinnon and James Smith were running a virtual dead heat for mayor.

You can call Herald Writer Jim Haley at 425-339-3447

or send e-mail to haley@heraldnet.com.

Marcie Miller contributed to this report.