Election appears to draw record numbers here

By Seattle Times staff

TOM REESE / THE SEATTLE TIMES Volunteers brave the weather for last minute campaign messages to Intersate-5 commuters from NE 45th St. in Seattle.

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In Bellevue, voters were waiting outside the door when John Chadwick arrived to open the polls at the Neighborhood Church on 140th Avenue Northeast. All 13 polling booths were filled at 7:30 a.m. and five other people were standing in line.

"It has been like that since we opened the door," Chadwick said. "I can't remember when I've seen this kind of turnout."

Reports throughout the day showed only scattered problems and technical glitches. One voter in Sultan reported his vote for John Kerry was temporarily credited to George W. Bush before the machine was fixed and the vote correctly counted, according to a voter hotline at Seattle University's law school that had logged just two calls during the day.

Snohomish County elections manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said problems were found with about 10 of the county's 1,000 touch-screen voting machines, with technicians fixing calibration problems as they were reported.

While Washington is not seen as a swing state in the presidential election, the race between President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry has fueled a surge in voter registrations statewide.

Secretary of State Sam Reed, himself in a re-election race, predicted state turnout at 84 percent, the highest since Franklin Delano Roosevelt beat Thomas Dewey in the 1944 election.

In King County, elections officials were busy counting the 348,000 absentee ballots returned by Monday. Elections director Dean Logan expected to release the first count of absentee ballots around 8:15 p.m., and polling results are to begin appearing around 9 p.m.

By this morning, county election officials across the state had already received more than 1.3 million absentee ballots, about 54 percent of the total issued.

Several state and local races and citizen initiatives, meanwhile, came into election day as too close to call.

The hotly contested 8th District congressional race between Republican Dave Reichert and Democrat Dave Ross has been one of the most heavily targeted by both national parties, which have sunk millions of dollars into campaign ads.

Early indications were that voters were braving today's downpours.

"The turnout has been great statewide," said Trova Hutchins, spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office. "Voter registration efforts have been great and were consistent across the state."

The parties had hundreds of people working the phones, going door-to-door and working street corners and bridges to remind voters to get to the polls.

A handful of people waving big Bush/Cheney banners stood on a pedestrian bridge over Aurora Avenue in North Seattle, undeterred by the pounding rain around 7 a.m. At Hawthorne Elementary in South Seattle, Rose Lee, 63, took the day off from running a retail nursery to help Democrats get out the vote.

If people need rides, she can get them rides, she said. If people need baby-sitters, she can get baby-sitters.

Matt Levay, 24, a UW graduate student in English, and formerly of Marysville, Kentucky, was in line to vote.

He said he keeps his voting preferences to himself, but said this election is "far more bitter than four years ago" when he first voted in a presidential election.

He said there were many reminders at the UW campus from volunteers to get students to vote, and that's what many of his friends were doing.

At the Blessed Sacrament Church in the University District, Colleen Roman, 44, was among the first in line to vote.

"It's the first time I've voted this early," she said. "But it's important to get Bush out of office. It's really scary that he would be in office four more years."

Aaron Everett, 27, of Newcastle, said he didn't vote during the Clinton years but started turning out because he felt Bush needed his support.

"I think every vote counts," he said.

At the Tulalip Reservation near Marysville, voters were mobilizing for a different reason, to stop Initiative 892, a measure that would allow slot-style electronic scratch machines across the state.

In the first hour of voting at the Tulalip Community Hall, more than 100 voters had streamed through, said poll inspector Phyllis DeSoto, about three times the number she saw four years ago by that time.

Raymond Moses, 74, a tribal member who has lived on the reservation all his life, said he believed the measure would "hurt the public more than us."

"It'll be in the stores and bars and everything," he said, adding that it could lead to an increase in crime.

A few minor glitches were reported this morning, including one at a voting site on the outskirts of Port Townsend.

Poll workers were asking everyone for identification. However, a valid ID is required only of individuals voting for the first time in a federal election and who had not provided identification information in a mailed-in registration form, said Betty Johnson, an election specialist with the Jefferson County elections office.

She said poll workers at the site were called and told the correct information. No one was turned away, although one individual did go home and return with identification.

More than 600 lawyers representing the Democratic and Republican parties were expected to join voters at the polls this year to watch for any voting irregularities.

But neither party is expecting the kinds of polling-place mischief that has been seen in other parts of the country.

"This isn't ground zero," said Boston lawyer Bill Lee, the Democrat's voting protection coordinator for the Washington. He cited the state's use of provisional balloting — which allow registered voters to cast ballots even if they are not at their assigned precinct — the high number of absentee voting and a tradition of respecting voter rights.

By late afternoon, the Seattle University hotline had logged just two complaints of voting problems, said Joaquin Avila, an elections-law expert and visiting law professor.

"I was hoping that if we didn't get any calls, it would be for the right reasons, and not because the (telephone) number wasn't available in places with severe problems," he said.

As the morning progressed, among the biggest problems faced this morning was dealing with someone who was not on the voter list and had to fill out the proper form before casting a vote.

Karen Baker, 36, a public defender, was the attorney assigned by the Democrats to monitor voting here.

She had brought along legal paper work to read, as well as a Philip Roth novel if things slowed down.

At Northminster Presbyterian Church in Ballard, where people from nine precincts vote, poll workers gave children make-believe ballots to fill out.

Fiona Doherty, 4, voted that September was her favorite month and pancakes were her favorite breakfast.

Her mother, Jennifer Doherty, said she was disappointed at the choices and tenor of this year's presidential election.

"All the bickering was unfortunate," she said. "We're voting for the lesser of two evils."

She said she didn't trust Kerry and she didn't like Bush's spin on Iraq.

Outside the 36th district polling place at Seattle Center at about 8:30 a.m., Dan Burke snapped a picture of Dante Obcena, his colleague, holding a voters pamphlet.

"It's my first time," said Obcena, 25, a native of the Philippines who became a U.S. citizen last year. "I feel like I'm American now."

Burke, a 36-year-old business owner, voted for Kerry, but he also voted for at least three Republicans, he said, along with one Green Party candidate.

He says neighbors at his Queen Anne condo have been slipping Republican literature under his door, and both he and Obcena work with a colleague who is staunchly Republican.

Obcena's family, which moved here three years ago, includes those with strong left and right views, and heated debates are frequent.

Both Burke and Obcena believe it's helpful to listen to all sides before making up your mind.

"I learn from them," Obcena said. "At the end of the day, it comes down to what works for you."

Seattle Times reporters Jonathan Martin, Ray Rivera, Erik Lacitis, Florangela Davila, Sherry Grindeland, Kelly Kearsley, Judy Chia Hui Hsu, Carol Ostrom and Stephanie Dunnewind contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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