Results tagged “vote2008”

To the hundreds--if not more--of people dancing, beating drums, cheering, waving signs and blocking traffic for hours on Capitol Hill's Broadway with us tonight: you are noisy and beautiful, you make this city beautiful, and reveling in Obama and Gregoire's wins would not have been nearly as joyous without you in the streets. To whomever brought fireworks: genius (okay, a little dangerous maybe, but genius). And to whomever brought their kids: you've given them a huge gift by letting them see a community at its most profoundly, honestly, loudly, and proudly celebratory. Holy shit! That just happened! UPDATE: KING5's footage of some of the partying.

Are you so, so antsy at this point? Are you clicking F5 F5 F5 on CNN.com while simultaneously instant messaging about the ludicrous statements from McCain supporters you're hearing on NPR? Some polling locations have closed (parts of Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire), and you might as well just close the analysis websites and skip straight forward to what's most important: Is Obama President Yet?

Seattlest, like many of you, has to be at the office today instead of in the living room in front of the TV, which is where we want to be right now. We're following the election news on KUOW/NPR (94.9 FM) and keeping an eye on CNN.com, MSNBC.com, and King County Votes (which also has a helpful Twitter feed). If you're not watching tv today and you're trying to keep up on the news, what sites are you reading/obsessively refreshing?

Polling locations are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. in King County, and you can find your polling location here. According to the King County Votes twitter feed, 6,000 people opted to vote early, which bodes well for today's voter turnout. It's the last election King County voters will be able to vote in person, so for those of you who haven't yet gone the absentee route, savor the experience!

From a Times article announcing that ballots from 53% of expected state voters are already in: "King County, the state's most populous county, has 1.1 million voters and is predicting an 85 percent turnout. Some counties are predicting a turnout as high as 90 percent." Holy smokes, that is a lot of voters! Seattlest just watched a Starbucks-sponsored commercial begging everyone to vote, and we're unashamed to say that we teared up big time. Actually, most articles we've read about the election today have left us a little choked up. Tomorrow can't come soon enough!

The Seattle Times Blethens have endorsed Dino Rossi (R) for Washington State Governor, saying "he can best be trusted to erase the state's huge projected deficit without raising taxes." The Seattle P-I endorses Christine Gregoire (D), pointing out, "Especially for uncertain times, she's a much more proven leader than her Republican rival, former state Sen. Dino Rossi." The Seattle Times, under Blethen leadership, has laid off about 20 percent of its staff this year, so we're a little dubious about their powers of prognostication when it comes to dealing with huge projected deficits.

Here's a creative idea for how to support the presidential candidate of your choice in this last, crucial week: mail an exhausted campaign worker a pack of vacuum-sealed Vivace coffee beans to help them fight the good fight in battleground states like Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida. The Hoosier State works, too, as Obama supporter/Seattlest's housemate Sarah Moon found out when she received this email back in thanks from an expat Seattlite working for the Campaign for Change in Evansville, Indiana:

Transportation professionals say Initiative 985 will make traffic worse. Tim Eyman says, "I-985 implements common sense reforms based on recommendations from Sonntag's thorough investigation." The P-I says, "Voters should decline to join Eyman in blowing this multi-toxin poison dart at themselves." But what do you say? Yea or nay? Our poll closes tomorrow at noon, and don't be shy about voicing your opinions in the comments. (More on I-985 here)

Mayor Greg Nickels will be voting no on Proposition 2, the parks levy that would raise something like $145 million over the next several years to improve city parks. According to the P-I, the Mayor thinks it would be nice to see property taxes decrease for once--and the parks improvement plan isn't that superlative, anyway. Unsurprisingly, the Seattle Parks Foundation disagrees, calling the parks levy a grassroots movement (haha, grass, get it? Like the grass they would maybe plant in a park with some of that $145 mil), strongly supported by "many people."