The five-way primary in Fire District 1 revealed a fractured electorate with none of the candidates getting as much as 32 percent of the vote.
Millie Judge, who took 31 percent of the primary vote, will face James Beaunaux, who won 22 percent, in the general election. They are running for the position being vacated by retiring Commissioner Lawrence Hedland.
A second Commission position will be on the November ballot, with incumbent Commissioner Brian McMahan facing challenger Mike Johnson.
The candidates are running for six-year terms on the five-member board.
More on the Grange’s political importance
I wrote last week about the importance of the Grange in Washington’s political history, including the establishment of public utility districts and of Washington’s blanket primary election.
While Washington is no longer a rural state and Grange membership is down, the Grange still helps carry on the state’s populist tradition.
After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the blanket primary unconstitutional nine years ago, Washington’s Grange sponsored the top-two primary and joined state officials in defending the system in the federal courts.
Currently, the Grange is a party to a lawsuit in which the political parties are attempting to fight the implementation of the top-two primary.
My grandparents and many of their contemporaries were Grangers, but their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have left the farm. Still, we need a group like the Grange to fight for our populist tradition.
A poor primary election turnout
Snohomish County’s primary voting turnout was slightly below 25 percent.
That can be excused in places like Brier and Mountlake Terrace, where there was nothing of significance on the ballot.
But, in Edmonds, where two candidates are three votes apart, and in Lynnwood, which had four city primary contests, participation was still only 60 percent of what we can expect in November.
Some blame the August date, but I think we’re stuck with that. The traditional mid-September date left too little time to count primary ballots and print general-election ballots in time for mailing to overseas voters. A spring primary would mean an overextended election season.
The culprit, I believe, is the lack of neighborhood ballot drop spots. Last year, there were half a dozen places in the Edmonds School District to leave ballots. This year, there was one — at the Lynnwood Library. Of course, having extra drop spots costs money, but it’s little compared to what the county saved when it eliminated poll voting.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@verizon.net
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