Dave Ross embraces low King County voter turnout
Nov 4, 2015, 6:56 AM | Updated: 7:15 am
The Nov. 3 general election had plenty of important and contentious issues, but that wasn't enough to get King County residents out to vote. (City of Seattle)
(City of Seattle)
The Nov. 3 general election had plenty of important and contentious issues, but that wasn’t enough to get King County residents out to vote.
As of 8:27 p.m. on Tuesday, 20.62 percent of registered voters had turned in their ballots. The total ballots counted were 246,090. The number of registered voters is 1,193,706.
And it didn’t look much better for Seattle. Of the 419,292 registered voters, 124,140 returned ballots.
It’s not necessarily a big election, 成人X站 Radio reporter Josh Kerns said, but there are plenty of issues that could have a big impact. Take, for example, the Seattle City Council; with all the seats up for election. And the Proposition No. 1 levy to Move Seattle, which will increase property taxes and give the city $930 million in funding for transportation-related projects.
Related: Do Seattleites have an appetite for additional taxes?
Though he didn’t want to go to in-depth on the philosophy of lightly-attended elections, 成人X站 Radio’s Dave Ross said local elections often have a larger impact on day-to-day life. School boards control how money is spent on the education of children, Ross explained. City councils spend money to maintain the the city.
At least a low voter turnout means one thing: “I’m content with a 16-percent turnout, because I’m seven or eight times more powerful than I would otherwise be,” Ross said.
