The good news is that there’s a 90 minute wait to vote at the Bellevue library polling station, so I guess the turnout is relatively high. And the bad news is that there’s a fucking 90 minute wait to vote at the Bellevue library polling station!
The parking lot is overflowing and the line is so long people are walking away in disgust. If you wanted to design an election to discourage participation, this would be the way to do it. You know, the Republicans’ dream system.
What a joke.
Well, what the hell are you doing on the other side of the water anyway, Goldy? I voted at a Seattle-area library and there were only 3 or 4 people in line ahead of me.
I voted for Kirk Prindle. I know there’s other good candidates, but if liberals don’t pick one candidate and support that one, we’ll divide our vote and the bad guys will win again. The local Democratic organization supported Prindle so I went with him.
I was planning on stopping by on my way home from work. Scratch that idea.
Goldy, Dude you have got fix this web site, it is taking forever to load and then jumps down the page and hangs up there for a long time. Dude, you are killing me.
I thought that was you. It was actually about a half-hour wait, but still a surprise. Think it was mentioning it in the times or a concentrated get-out-the-vote drive?
Good luck with the loudmouth in line going on about the importance of property rights.
No line at the Vashon library.
They have libraries in Bellevue?
The wait at the downtown Seattle library wasn’t too bad, but I still was surprised by the number of people waiting there to vote.
Hopefully this is the best turnout they’ve had for the KCCD elections yet. In addition to this blog several other sites mentioned the election including Publicola, The Stranger, and Seattle Transit Blog. The Times and PI ran stories on the election as have the local TV stations.
Still it would be better if we could elect the KCCD board at the same time we elect the county council and executive.
Took about 20-30 minutes when I voted at the Central Library at 5:20 or so. The time went by quickly because I ran into a couple of old friends just behind me in the line.
Goldy, KCCD is a very small operation. They have an annual budget of a little over $6 million. So they do the election with volunteers. Money sent to Sherill Huff at King County Elections would not be available for programs.
So can someone help me out with why the elections are run this way? Is there a particular reason why this has not been changed?
@10 According to Seattle Times, the private vendor charges KCCD about $35,000 to conduct an election that would cost $1 million if the county put it on the November ballot.
Personally, I think the $965,000 difference is better spent on conservation programs than the election, notwithstanding the inconvenience to voters.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....on14m.html
In the Des Moines Library, at 5 pm, there was no wait at all.
This still begs the question of why the conservation district can’t hold their election when everyone else does in the fall. All sorts of special districts do. What’s so special about them that they have to fork over $1 million? This is ridiculous.
I arrived about 6:45 this evening. I waited in line about 5 minutes. When I was leaving, the line was starting to really grow. I really dodged a bullet on that one.
So, who won? If the Times or PI told us on their web sites, I couldn’t find it.
We arrived at 7:45 at the Bellevue Library. The woman from the company who runs the election (not a volunteer) said they had run out of ballots, but that we would be able to vote, they just wouldn’t be able to track it. It took 45 minutes for us to actually reach the front of the line and vote.
I would like to know where the results will be published, where I can access the list of people who voted, what the percentage of voter turnout was, and the process used for the handcounted ballots. I would also like to know how much it would cost if the KCD used the other option that the company offers, vote by mail. It certainly makes it harder to conduct a stealth election if you mail the ballots directly to the homes of the registered voters, but perhaps it would be worthwhile to have the election done somewhat, um, democratically. Can you do some digging, Goldy?
Why are we out-sourcing an election to a private company? That certainly seems to be a very bad precedent, frought with all kinds of danger.