I’ve been watching the WA Secretary of State’s Ballot Return Statistics page for the past week in this thread on Mastodon.
When I started, the state was at just under a 20% return rate, and as of today’s ballot drop, we’re at almost (but not quite) a 33% return rate.
I’m so frustrated by how few people vote in midterms. I mean, in general — even the major presidential elections have a far lower turnout rate than they should — but particularly the midterms.
It’s four days before election day, and not quite one third of the state’s electorate’s ballots have been received.
King County, Washington’s most populous county (solidly blue), is still lagging behind the overall return rate.
Jefferson County (solidly blue) has the best return rate.
Adams County (solidly red) has the worst return rate.
The optimist in me wants to see the Jefferson and Adams County return rates as indicative of how things are going to go, with Democrats coming out strong and Republicans not showing up. However, this could just be that Democrats have been voting earlier, and Republicans will have their ballots coming in at the end. (Obviously, even my optimism is struggling right now.)
The pessimist in me looks at the overall return rate, King County’s return rate, and that the strongest age group is the 65+ group, and worries that right-leaning rural boomers are going to dominate the results.
I try to be hopeful (I’m better at hopeful than optimistic), but…its tough right now. So many people say they want things to change, but when 2/3 of them don’t even bother to vote, it’s hard to see any avenue for things actually improving.
I hope that those who are voting are numerous enough and left-leaning enough that we have a chance of pushing things back towards a saner position. I really do. We’ll know (to one degree or another) sometime next week.
If you haven’t voted yet, please do.
If you know people younger than you, encourage them to vote.
Get those ballots filled out and in drop boxes.