It may not matter, but they still voted

Linda Garland took time off work Tuesday and rode the bus in the rain from her West Seattle home to the downtown election office.

She had not received a ballot in the city's first all-mail election. Tuesday was the last day Seattle residents could vote on how they think the Alaskan Way Viaduct should be replaced.

Garland knows that it's not clear what politicians will do with the results. "Their record in the past is they don't listen to the will of the people," she said while waiting for a ballot. "But what else could you do?"

She commutes to her job in Everett on the viaduct, which officials say must be torn down because of earthquake damage. The advisory ballot presented her with two questions: whether to replace the viaduct with a $3.4 billion tunnel or with a new $2.8 billion viaduct.

Garland said she was voting no on the tunnel and yes on a new viaduct.

"Voicing my opinion is more powerful than not voting at all," she said.

The King County elections office received 117,384 ballots by Monday night, and officials expected 69,432 more to be postmarked or dropped off Tuesday based on their prediction that 55 percent of voters would participate.

Participation among voters who traditionally cast ballots at polls trailed absentee-voter participation slightly, but Jim Buck, interim elections director, said Tuesday he expected more ballots from poll voters to be postmarked or dropped off that day.

Many view the election as a test for King County's plans to switch to all-mail elections in 2008.

At the High Point Community Center drop-off site, some West Seattle voters did not agree with Garland, even though many in that neighborhood depend on the viaduct.

John Moore voted opposite Garland — yes on a tunnel, no on a new elevated freeway.

"We need to move people through the city and preserve it as a park setting," he said.

Another West Seattle resident, Ben McIndoe, voted no on both options because he wants the existing viaduct to be repaired, which was not an option on the ballot.

"This is the dumbest vote I've ever seen," he said.

McIndoe works out of his house, so he doesn't commute on the viaduct, but he said a tunnel "would be an atrocity to traffic and the businesses of Seattle."

Where people live did not seem to determine their votes.

Becca Bergman of Capitol Hill, who dropped off her ballot at the downtown election office, voted no on both options because she wanted a surface street with added mass transit.

Sam Downing, who lives in the Montlake neighborhood, voted yes for a tunnel and no on a new elevated viaduct.

"A no-no vote sends the message that I'm frustrated with the politics, where the message I want to send is that I'm frustrated with the viaduct."

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com