Camden: State’s ‘politically engaged’ voters might break it off

This assessment, however, seems a bit pale after the secretary of state’s office announced the current turn-in for this year’s election stood at 9 percent Friday, a little over a week after ballots were mailed to voters. While plenty of time remains for voters to mark their ballots, historically about one-fourth of ballots that are going to be cast in a general election have been turned in by the end of the first week.

Conventional wisdom says these are the well-motivated voters who long ago made up their minds on the major races and issues. They quickly study election information to answer any questions they might have and send their ballots off to avoid misplacing or forgetting them.

In 2010, the last midterm election, more than 40,000 ballots were in Spokane County elections officials’ hands by the end of the first full week of turn-ins. This year it’s about 31,000.

Voters statewide had a more exciting race at the top of the ticket four years ago with a U.S. Senate contest, but this year’s ballot features measures on guns and schools, and what better issues to get the juices flowing? Secretary of State Kim Wyman projects a turnout of 60 to 62 percent this year. But secretaries of state are always optimistic about voter turnout, by tradition if not by statute.

No. 1, maybe

The Hill, meanwhile, came up with a formula that declared Washington the nation’s bluest state. We could be more comfortable about that title if its researchers had been a bit more diligent. States were graded based on how their voters have gone in the presidential elections, the partisan makeup of their congressional delegation, their last three governors, and the makeup of their Legislature.

The D.C. newspaper correctly noted that Washington has gone Democrat in the last seven presidential elections, has two Democratic senators, six of 10 members of the House delegation are Democrats, and its last three governors were Ds (actually it’s the last five, over eight elections, but we’re not counting). “Democrats also control the Legislature,” the Hill said. That would be a huge surprise to members of the Senate, which has been run by a mostly Republican coalition for the last two years.

It might also be fair to point out that the eastern half of the state has gone for Republican presidents during those elections, has GOP House members and usually supports unsuccessful GOP candidates for U.S. Senate and governor, as well as sending mostly Republicans to the Legislature.

When the blues west of the Cascades are merged with the reds to the east, Washington might better be described as the purplest of states.