THE SCARY SEASON is upon us.
Halloween was only pretend-scary when I was a kid, romping in an old sheet, neighbor-to-neighbor, long before tainted treats added real fright to trick’r treatin’.
More recently, controversial and contrary perceptions unleashed a doctrinal firestorm, variously characterizing Halloween as everything from a sinful celebration honoring the devil to a potentially offensive mocking of wiccans’ holiest day.
Scarier than Halloween — and of much greater importance — is the dearth of voters returning ballots as time rapidly runs out.
In this case, the “witching hour” isn’t midnight Saturday, but 8 p.m. Tuesday — the deadline for voting in the 2009 General Election.
Ballots are short — just two statewide issues, a total of 17 contested races in Clallam and Jefferson counties combined, plus a smattering of special district tax levies — yet the choices seem to have many voters spooked, or at least confused.
“An odd-year election doesn’t ordinarily bring a good turnout,” Clallam County Auditor Patty Rosand told me.
“That’s sad, because it’s the local issues that will probably affect us the most.”
Only 11,671 ballots had made it back to the Clallam County Courthouse as of Thursday morning, a mere 25.5 percent of the 45,736 ballots mailed earlier this month.
Rosand’s early prediction of a 70 percent return “was extremely optimistic,” she said.
“I now think we’ll be lucky to hit 40 percent.”
Low interest is pandemic.
Secretary of State Sam Reed “thinks we may hit 50 percent statewide,” thanks to interesting races in King County, Rosand said.
Jefferson County, as usual, is ahead of the game.
The 8,454 ballots returned as of Thursday are an “on-track” 38.46 percent of the 21,983 ballots mailed in mid-October, said Auditor Donna Eldridge.
She expects to hit her prediction of 62.86 percent participation, despite having no contested races for the four Port Townsend City Council seats on the ballot.
“Public service is hard and getting harder as revenues shrink,” Eldridge said, explaining why more people aren’t vying for the virtually unpaid positions.
To me, it’s always scary when voters don’t have choices, but judging by ballot returns, city voters seem to be more scared by having choices.
Four City Council seats in Port Angeles, two in Sequim and two in Forks, are contested, plus there’s a race for mayor of Forks, yet voters in those cities haven’t hurried to mark their ballots.
“Some voters wait to the last minute in case something new turns up in the campaign,” Rosand said.
“Maybe I’ll be surprised [by a large return] at the end.”
“Some people want to vote on Election Day,” Eldridge agreed.
The statewide issues — Initiative 1033 and Referendum 71 — have generated more confusion than interest, Rosand observed, with many people turned off by the sheer volume of material in voter information guides.
“It’s a lot to read and figure out,” she said.
Eldridge, however, is noticing high interest in the statewide issues.
“If they don’t choose to vote on anything else, they are voting on those,” she said.
What’s really scary is that “many people seem to be unaware there’s even an election going on,” Rosand said.
Indeed, personal conversations I’ve had confirm that observation.
“I didn’t know there was an election until [the ballot] turned up in the mail,” said a busy young mother. She hadn’t yet opened the envelope, but said she plans to vote.
Told the deadline is Tuesday, she said, “Oh my, I’ll have to read up on it.”
Voting is both a priceless right and a sacred responsibility, but someone who’s been voting as long as I have joked that she didn’t find any “treats” in her ballot, then seriously added, she hopes voters won’t be tricked.
“We’re really tricking ourselves,” another voter said, “if we think we can keep voting to cut taxes and spending, but keep on electing whoever promises us the most from the government.”
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Martha Ireland was a Clallam County commissioner from 1996 through 1999 and is the secretary of the Republican Women of Clallam County.
She and her husband, Dale, live on a Carlsborg-area farm. Her column appears Fridays.
E-mail: irelands@olypen.com.
