A Dive into Election Turnout
76.2% Voter Turnout in Kittitas County! Did the work of the League of Women Voters impact November voter turnout in any way? Did our voter registration work account for some of the improvement? Did our Get Out The Vote strategies impact turnout? Did the Candidate Forum make a difference? Let’s look into that!
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Although the election is not yet final in Washington state (won’t be until certified on November 27th), the Kittitas County voter turnout is already above 76%. That means 3 out of 4 voters actually completed and turned in ballots!
In the 2016 presidential election, some of the lowest voter turnout numbers included Central Washington University campus and surrounding precincts. In 2017 and 2018, the Kittitas Valley LWV in partnership with Associated Students of Central Washington University focused on registering and turning out voters on CWU campus and its immediate neighbors to improve those stats. So let’s look at the early numbers:
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This guest column first appeared in the Daily Record in June 2018. It bears repeating.
Drama critic and magazine editor George Jean Nathan hit the nail on the head when he said, “Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.”
Nathan died in 1958 but his quote was prophetic. Statistically speaking, less than one in three eligible (31 percent) voters cast a ballot in Kittitas County’s April special election on whether or not to approve a port district. So essentially those two-thirds of eligible voters who did not cast a ballot allowed others to speak for them.
Collectively, we’ve confused the advantage or benefit of privilege with one of responsibility and duty when it comes to voting. It’s remarkably disturbing that more county citizens didn’t bother to cast a ballot in April. But the trend in Kittitas County for this special election is not unlike voter turnout across our nation in general. Officials report that a whopping 58 percent of eligible voters turned out for the 2016 general presidential election. Just 58 percent. That’s abysmal by any standard. I guess we get what we deserve.
Calling you to action!
League of Women Voters of Washington is looking to create change on critical issues affecting our state next year in the 2019 Legislative Session. We need your voice to make it happen.
