Short version? Meh. Extremely low turnout, even for an off-year election (under 24% for King County). Incumbents did well, generally. A veritable lack of pitchforks from any quarter on my ballot. There is still one local election that I don't vote for, and therefore normally don't cover (Seattle Prosecuting Attorney) which is still too close to call between three candidates, but things have shaken out without a lot of fuss. Boring, boring democracy.
As a rule of thumb, if you're an incumbent and have more than 50% of the vote you're doing OK. If you're a challenger (or there is no incumbent) and you get more than 30%, you're in a good place. Not everybody who votes in the General will vote in the Primary, so that's just a rule of thumb.
Oh, and for out-of-towners, it takes a few days (sometimes more) for Washington State to finalize ballots. We vote by mail out here, which is a pretty good system, and ballots that are postmarked by election day have to be counted. Older and more conservative voters (Venn diagrams show some overlap) tend to vote regularly, so they carry more weight in small elections. Younger and more liberal voters (again, not always the same group), tend to vote late and swing the numbers as the counting goes on. So final figures may tweak a few points. Just so you know what takes them so long and why the candidate you favor who was leading on election night suddenly changes position.
Here's how things turned out:
King County Proposition No. 1 Regular Property Tax Levy for Children, Youth, Families, and Communities. Approved at 60%
King County Executive - Dow Constantine (53%) vs, Joe Nguyen (31%).
City of Kent Council Position No. 6 - Brenda Fincher (78%) vs Larry Hussey (13%)
Kent School District No. 415 Director District No. 4 - Awale Farah (43%) vs.Bradley Kenning (31%)
Kent School District No. 415 Director District No. 5 - Tim Clark (54%) vs Sarah Franklin (29%)
Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority Proposition No. 1 Continuation of Benefit Charge - Yes. (73%)
Soos Creek Water and Sewer District Position No. 5 - Logan K. Wallace (53%) vs Alice R Marshall (31%)
Public
Hospital District No. 1 Commissioner District No. 2 - Jim Griggs (47%) vs. Dustin Lambro (44%)
Public Hospital District No. 1 Commissioner District No. 4 - Monique Taylor-Swan (36%) vs Katie Banchard (35%
And with that we dissemble the pop-up and move on to the general election. See you there. More later,
