Ross: King County bested by Wahkiakum for voter turnout, what is wrong with you people?

It’s the day after election day — and all the focus is on which candidates won and which candidates lost.

But I would like to gin up a little excitement for a different race. A voter turnout race. A race to be the county that turns out the most voters, because the biggest lesson I learned in my brief political career was that if you don’t vote, you don’t exist. No politician is going to push programs that don’t get votes.

This means if a lot of people don’t vote — over time, the government becomes unresponsive.

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Turnout is important, so maybe the answer is to appeal to our competitive spirit.

For example, as of the last ballot count, the top turnout goes to — not Snohomish County, not Pierce County, not King County … but to Wahkiakum County! The south edge of the state along the Columbia! Now, they’ve only counted 3,491 ballots so far, but that’s enough for a turnout rate of 42.77%!

Way ahead of Pierce and King County, which are about 20% and Snohomish which is at approximately 22%.

I’m sure those numbers will improve, but come on people. Are we going to be outclassed by some tiny county with more elk than people? I actually don’t know how many elk they have, but the point is along with the partisan get-out-the-vote efforts, we need some non-partisan pride in our turnout numbers.

2023 King County election: Lowest voter turnout in nearly 90 years

But Dave — what about a reward for voter turnout? A prize for the winner? I’ve been thinking about that. How about, for the county with the best turnout, you get a state tax rebate. A nice fat check in the mail for everyone in the top-turnout county. Not only motivating you to vote, but motivating you to urge others to vote.

So I say offer a fat check to the county with the highest turnout. But even if it’s a skinny check, or just a coupon for an Italian soda, there has to be a way to hammer home the message that the real threat to democracy doesn’t come from any one candidate — the threat is from voters who just tune out.

Listen to “Seattle’s Morning News” with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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