Did everyone vote?

With only one contested race here in Renton, I admit it was difficult to get excited about voting this year, but this past weekend I made sure to pull out my ballot, read it carefully and then fill in the little bubbles on my ballot.

You know, as if I was a student taking one of the 112 standardized tests required before graduation.

I used to love voting; but since I moved to Washington about 15 years ago, it has not had the same impact for me. I think partially this has to do with the ballot itself and partially that it seems completely useless in this state as we have apparently forgotten how a representative democracy is supposed to work.

First, I am sorry, but the actual act of voting out here is just awful. I miss voting booths and the mechanical certainty of hearing – literally hearing – your vote be counted. Ka-chunk!

When I was a kid, voting was an event. It was something special. My mom took me to the booth with her and I remember thinking it was a special thing to literally see behind the curtain at that giant ballot hanging in front or her and watching as she physically pulled a lever marking her vote in each category.

My first years voting had that same feel: going to my polling place with my fellow Americans, taking my turn in the private booth, Ka-chunking my vote and then pulling that curtain back to watch all of the rows reset. It felt good, like I had accomplished something.

Then I moved to Washington.

Out here I went to the polling place, but there was no booth, just a small privacy screen that I was supposed to hide behind as I drew a line with a marker that completed an arrow and registered my vote. I left feeling like I had just done some silly school project and wondered if I’d get docked for not using enough macaroni and glitter.

But at least as late as 2008 in Tacoma, I had the camaraderie of waiting with my fellow voters to make our voices heard.

Now I live in King County and they have done away with even my polling place. Election Day is no longer a special day with those exciting machines and that sense of accomplishment. Now it’s just another Tuesday.

This past weekend, my wife and I sat at our kitchen table and filled in our bubbles. Ho hum.

I know the idea is to increase voter turnout by not making it so you don’t have to go to a specific location at a specific time to vote and so can do it with the guide in front of you and all of that, but I am not sure it is working. A quick look at the numbers both county- and state-wide since we went all-mail-in in 2008 does not show a significant difference.

(As an aside, I also can’t help but think that if I had taken 112 standardized tests prior to gaining the right to vote, perhaps getting a ballot that looks just like another standardized test is not the kind of thing that would make simply NOT want to vote. But I digress…)

On top of that, this year’s ballot was simply infuriating for any of us that remembers our civics classes.

This election, there were two state initiatives, a handful of King County propositions and initiatives and then four “advisory votes” asking us to vote – meaninglessly, it should be noted – if we agree or not with actions taken by our elected officials.

Huh?

What is the point of having these elections in the first place if I have to then approve or disapprove of what they elected officials have done. JUST DO IT. THAT IS WHY WE ELECTED YOU.

I mean, the whole point of a representative democracy – as opposed to an actual democracy – is that we elect people to represent us who then vote on the laws. Why are they there if I have to do it anyway?

If this is the case, we should just do away with the Legislature as a whole. If they punt everything back to the voters, they are obviously not doing the ONE THING we send them there to do and if that’s the case, let’s save that money.

It seems simple; if my elected official voted in a way I don’t agree, I will vote against that person the next time around. That’s how it supposed to work. That’s the whole idea.

Now, I am not actually advocating for the disbanding of the Legislature. I want just the opposite, in fact. I want them to do their jobs.

I am also opposed to the initiative process. I understand the reasoning behind it, but again, it not only subverts the entire purpose of our government, but when you let any idiot write and market a law using whatever money can be raised from where ever, chances are you get bad laws, or at least laws that benefit the person who wrote the law.

Tim Eyman and the unintended but incredibly obvious consequences of every single one of his ridiculous initiatives is the perfect example. So is the initiative that took liquor out of the state’s hands a few years back. That law, for example, did not “privatize” liquor sales, as it was pitched, but actually “corporatized” it because Costco wrote it specifically so only big stores – not little mom and pops – would be able to sell.

Initiatives should be binding in that it forces the Legislature to act, but not simply become law. For example, the question on the initiative should have been “Should the state get out of the liquor business?” If yes, the Legislature should have figured that out, not Costco.

All told, this was a depressing year to vote. Not because of the candidates – all of the candidates here in Renton deserved your vote; we are well-served – but because it was like every other part of the ballot, from filling it out at home to having to re-vote on matters that are already law and are therefore pointless anyway to the standardized test-like nature of the ballot made me feel like my vote didn’t matter anyway.

And take-home ballot or not, that’s not a recipe to increase turnout in the future.