Author Archives: kittitasleague

Most Improved Precinct?

November 20, 2018 By in Election Tags: ,
Most Improved Precinct?

Let’s Compare!

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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Voting is an obligation, not a privilege

October 30, 2018 By in Election Leave a comment

vote IMG_1713

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.

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Watch Candidates Night

October 19, 2018 By in Election Leave a comment
If you missed the League’s candidate night you can catch up today. The forum will automatically be streamed on ECTV2 at these times:
Fri., 10/19 12:00 noon & 7:00 PM
Sat., 10/20 12:00 noon
Sun, 10/21 7:00 PM
But going to the link below at any time, not just the scheduled times. That does work for some.
If you don’t want to watch the video all the way through, here are the start times for the speakers by position:

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Voting begins today; an AVU lets the physically challenged vote in private

October 19, 2018 By in education, Election

accessible voting machine

Pssst! Pass the word: Registered voters with disabilities can learn how to use Kittitas County’s Accessible Voting Unit (AVU) so that they can vote in privacy for this and other elections.

Beginning today, the first day of voting for the Nov. 6 election, election staff will be on hand to help voters with disabilities learn their way around these devices. Read the brochure below for details.

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