High turnout likely for election next week

OLYMPIA – Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed said Tuesday that he’s expecting unusually high voter turnout – 60 percent – for next week’s election.

“What really drives that is having controversial, hot initiatives that stir things up,” he said.

Like what? A veto of the state gas tax hike, for one. And a ban on most indoor public smoking. Voters are also being asked to decide who’s right in a multi-million-dollar doctors-vs.-lawyers battle over medical malpractice.

“There’s a lot at stake on this ballot,” Reed said.

Locally, turnout’s expected to be about 55 percent, said Spokane County elections supervisor Paul Brandt.

A normal odd-year election draws about 50 percent turnout, the secretary of state said. In 2001 it was less than 45 percent. In 2003, participation was down to just 40 percent.

If anything, Reed said, people have even more reason to vote in an odd year. The things they vote on – smoking at their local eatery, how much gas tax they’ll pay, whether their roads get fixed – directly affect their day-to-day lives. That link is less clear in the big election years, he said, when people pick who goes to Congress or the statehouse.

The turnout estimate is based largely on voting during previous controversial ballot-measure years. In 1997, for example, voters faced measures on handguns, sexual orientation and drug-crime penalties. Turnout rose to 57 percent.

In 1991, with ballot measures on abortion, property taxes, political term limits and euthanasia, voter turnout surged to nearly 68 percent.

This year’s turnout will likely rise because of the ever-increasing number of people who vote by mail, Reed said. Some 28 of the state’s 39 counties now vote almost entirely through their mailboxes.

“The ballot is sitting there on your coffee table,” Reed said. “You’re much more likely to vote, instead of waiting for Election Day and going out to the polling place.”