It's In The Mail: Absentee Voting Bumps Washington Turnout
Across the state, campaigns were waging furious 11th-hour get-out-the-vote efforts Monday, using mail, phone banks, sign-waving, and radio and TV commercials.
"It all comes down to turnout - and where it's from," said Brett Bader, a longtime political strategist who is advising the campaign for Initiative 912, which would roll back the state's recently enacted 9½-cent-a-gallon gas tax increase.
He had fingers crossed for a strong Eastern Washington vote, where a last-minute radio ad was denouncing "Gregoire's tax increase," a reference to the Democratic governor's strong support for the $5.5 billion program to finance 274 highway and road projects.
"A higher turnout in King County benefits us ... but I'm not making any predictions at all," said Mark Funk, spokesman for the I-912 opposition.
Gregoire herself gingerly weighed in for some last-minute campaigning, saying that Sunday's rockslide on Interstate 90 near Snoqualmie Pass is "yet another wakeup call that we need to get going on vital safety projects that impact people and businesses all across our state."
Secretary of State Sam Reed forecasts a 60 percent turnout, higher than the past four off-year elections and eclipsing even the years that voters approved repeal of the car-tab tax and voted on gun control, gay-rights and deregulating marijuana.
The only recent year with a higher turnout, 1991, had a 67.9 percent participation. Voters that year decided abortion rights, assisted suicide, property tax limits and term limits.
Although King County said Reed was too optimistic with his 63 percent prediction for the state's largest county, he was sticking by his guns.
"Extensive advertising on television kept reminding people that there was an election going on, and that's a big bump for these off-year elections," Reed said in an interview Monday.
He cited a six-pack of ballot issues, assorted hot local races, and, most significantly, the strong appeal of vote-by-mail.
Reed noted that 28 of the 39 counties have shifted entirely to absentee voting, using a new state law that passed last spring. Even in counties that haven't made the switch, such as populous King, Snohomish and Pierce, voters signed up in droves for permanent absentee ballots, he said.
When Oregon switched to vote-by-mail, participation jumped by 10 percentage points, Reed said. In Washington, 80 percent of this year's participation could be via the mails, he said.
One downside: Reed said perhaps no more than 50 percent of the ballots will be counted as of Tuesday night. The rest will be absentee ballots that won't be tallied until Wednesday and later.
A look at the top action:
GAS TAX
I-912 provided voters a chance to rescind the four-step gas-tax increase that lawmakers and Gregoire approved earlier this year. The first 3 cents went into effect July 1, and three more installments were approved in advance for the next three years.
Proponents of the rollback said the measure was too rich, particularly with the recent surge in gasoline prices, and that the project list was too skewed to King County and unlikely to actually fix traffic congestion.
I-912 foes, including the governor and business, labor and environmental leaders, said the state needs to boldly address its infrastructure needs, both for safety and for congestion relief. They cited Katrina hurricane damage as a reminder of Washington vulnerability to earthquake devastation.
MEDICAL MALPRACTICE
Doctors and lawyers offered dueling initiatives, I-330 and I-336, to address malpractice problems. The two sides waged a bitter, multimedia campaign, shattering spending records with a combined $15 million war chest. That was more than twice the amount spent in 1997 for and against the new Seahawks stadium.
SMOKING BAN
Initiative 901 was designed to broaden Washington's indoor smoking ban to include more public places, such as restaurants, bars, taverns, and bowling alleys.
PERFORMANCE AUDITS
Tim Eyman's latest initiative drew little organized opposition. I-900, expanding on state legislation that passed earlier in the year, would authorize the state auditor to do performance audits on state and local agencies and programs. Until now, the auditor has been limited to studying an agency's legal and financial compliance, not whether tax dollars are being spent effectively.
MUNICIPAL JUDGES
A proposed constitutional amendment, SJR 8207, offered municipal judges a chance to seek a seat on the Commission on Judicial Conduct, which disciplines errant judges. Currently, appeals, superior and district judges each elect a representative. The change proposed by the Legislature was to allow municipal judges to compete with district judges for the seat representing the "courts of limited jurisdiction."
MONORAIL
Seattle residents were voting a fifth time on whether they want a monorail transit line.
LOCAL RACES
Many areas had city and county races, including mayors for Seattle and Tacoma, city and county councils, school boards, ports and fire districts. King County Executive Ron Sims faced a stiff re-election challenge from Republican David Irons.