What Did Last Night’s Vote Count Tell Us? – Here’s What We Know About the General Election

Here is what we can tell you about the general election in November. The ballots will be counted on November 2^nd, and it will be raining. That’s it. We can be sure about the weather during the election, because folks will be voting over a three-week period, not just on the 2nd. It’s just that the ballot-counting will begin on the 2^nd. And anyone who assumes that this mid-summer’s all-mail-during-vacation hot-weather primary is any indicator of outcome of the general has not lived long in political country.

Yes, there are four or five incumbent D senators who need to get going if they want to plant their butts back in the cushion and report for duty.  Over in the House, maybe as many as four or five are in the same boat. But come on – how far away is November 2^nd?

We also have some idea of who will be voting in November. We call it the backdrop. The non-candidate ballot measures are like magnets, dragging focused, sometimes single-issue voters to the ballots. Check this out:

n     Pop drinkers.

n     Candy-bar eaters.

n     Bottled water drinkers.

n     Workers’ compensation (WC) insurance-paying business folks.

n     Lawyers, workers, and state agency folks who don’t want changes in WC.

n     Rich folks who don’t want an income tax.

n     Rich folks who do want an income tax (now, that’s counter-intuitive!)

n     Other folks who don’t want an income tax.

n     Poor folks who don’t trust any new taxes, and thus don’t want an income tax.

n     Voters who want their original choice of a two-thirds vote to raise taxes to be reinstated.

n     People who for some reason want to make it easier to raise taxes.

n     Folks who want to buy booze from any retailer (Sunday nights at Walmart?)

n     Folks who want to only buy booze from government businesses.

n     Folks who want to keep their “middle-man” booze-distribution monopoly.

n     Folks who want to have a choice to buy booze directly from producers.

n     Folks who support state monopoly booze sales.

n     Folks who want to limit the amount of state debt.

n     Folks who are interested in energy conservation for schools

Are there people in King County who are motivated by a new sales tax?

And then…the humans!

Do you think a $30 million U.S. Senate race will bring out a few?

A state Supreme Court race may cause a surge of turnout. Every legislative district will have its own micro-battles. And cities, counties and special purpose districts have non-people issues.

And finally, there will be no less than 10,000 folks who vote just to help their uncle, aunt, or neighbor win or lose a seat on the mosquito control district  board, or something like that.

And a partridge in a pear tree!

Looks like everybody will be voting. Not just the 30 percent or so who sent in ballots yesterday.

BTW, highest turnout so far in the primary? Pacific County, over 50 percent.