October 17, 2004 in City

Outdoors groups also in the hunt for share of votes

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Everybody seems caught up in campaign fever this time of the election season. But the friendly folks from Pheasants Forever want to make sure hunters don’t neglect election season during hunting season.

Since the two overlap, some hunters don’t study up on the candidates’ stances because they’re busy getting ready for their upcoming hunting excursion, or miss casting a ballot because they’re away from home on Election Day. To remedy the latter, the group suggests getting an absentee ballot, and even provides a Web site to look up each state’s absentee rules.

Pick out candidates who share your stands on hunting and conservation issues, the group also advises in a press release entitled “Vote for pheasants this election season.”

And after you vote for them, presumably you can shoot them.

The pheasants, not the candidates.

A group calling itself the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation also notes that hunters and anglers vote. They sent out results of a study that says in some of the key battleground states, three-fourths or more of sportsmen surveyed are likely voters, so the candidates ought to pay attention. Their survey also shows that sportsmen lean toward President Bush as being more supportive of their issues.

We also heard this week from Birders United to Defeat Bush, which is unhappy with the conservation policies of the administration, and wants to change it. They came up with this statistic: If only 270 Republican birders in Florida had switched their votes in 2004, Bush would not be president. Unless of course they were in West Palm Beach, the land of the hanging and pregnant chads. No telling whether it would have mattered there.

One for the record books

Washington state has already surpassed its old record for the number of registered voters, with at least 100,000 more registrations than the old mark of 2.3 million, set in 2000

“And new ones are still coming in,” Secretary of State Sam Reed said during a stop in Spokane last week. “They’re coming from everywhere.”

Republicans and Democrats both had major registration drives, as did the National Rifle Association, evangelical Christians and liberal organizations opposed to President Bush, Reed said.

The state is likely also to set records for the number of registered voters who show up at the polls, and for the total percentage of eligible citizens voting, he said. Those two numbers are different, because a certain percentage of those who are eligible to register never do. Some people argue that turnout is the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots, others say it’s the percentage of eligible people who vote.

Some of the biggest increases in turnout this year could be among voters aged 18 to 30, who previously have lagged behind other age groups, Reed said. Rock on.

Sign up or shut up time

Speaking of getting registered, Washington residents have one chance left, and it’s tomorrow.

Monday at 5 p.m. is the absolute, final, no-shinola-Sherlock deadline to fill out the form and go on the rolls. To do this, you must go to your county elections office, which in Spokane County is 1033 W. Gardner, which is the building at West Gardner and North Monroe. You’ll be given an absentee ballot, and can mail it in anytime before 8 p.m. Nov. 2.

Yes, that’s a bit of a hassle to find time during your busy day and make the trek over there. But look at it this way: You had plenty of reminders to mail in a registration form before the Oct. 2 deadline. You’ve had reminders to get down to the elections office before tomorrow.

If you didn’t pay attention to them, and you can’t take the time today, is it really likely that you’ll take the time to check out the issues and candidates, and vote by Election Day?

We don’t think so.

Catch the candidates

Tonight: 5th District Congressional debate, sponsored by KREM-TV and KSPS-TV; 4:30 p.m. on Channel 2; 7 p.m. on Channel 7.

Tonight: Gubernatorial debate co-sponsored by KXLY-TV, 6 p.m., Channel 4.

Monday: Congressional, legislative, commission candidates forum, sponsored by AHANA; 6 p.m., American Indian Community Center, 904 E. 3rd Ave.

Tuesday: 3rd District Senate town hall debate, sponsored by Gonzaga Student Body Assn., 7 p.m., Cataldo Globe Room, GU campus.

Wednesday: 5th District congressional debate sponsored by the City Forum; 11:45 a.m., 1st Presbyterian Church, 318 S. Cedar.

Friday: District 3 and 9 state Senate candidates sponsored by Spokane Chamber; 7:30 a.m., Spokane Regional Business Center.

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