Wet voters wade into polling places 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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A steady stream of folks with coffee mugs and umbrellas waded into Hawthorne Elementary school as polls opened in Seattle's south end. Some 50 people were already lined up by the time the doors opened at 7 a.m.

Early reports showed few of the scattered problems and technical glitches that were popping up in other states.

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 another five 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."

While Washington is not seen as a battleground state in the presidential election, the race between President George W. Bush and Senator 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.

	TOM REESE / THE SEATTLE TIMES Adrian Verzola of Renton sprints along NE 45th St., sending a message to morning commuters urging them to vote

Several state and local races and citizen initiatives, meanwhile, came into the day 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.

In the governor's race, Democrat Christine Gregoire held a narrowing lead in polls over Republican Dino Rossi.

Rainy weather typically favors Republicans, keeping voters away from the polls. But early indications were that voters were weathering 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."

At the South Park Community Center, 117 people had voted as of 11:30 a.m. The average for the whole day usually is 130. "Normally if I fill a page I'm doing good," said precinct committee officer Robin Guvarra, referring to the voter sign-in sheet.

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."

She said she's voting mostly Democratic.

On the Eastside, about 60 people were lined up at Hazelwood School in Newcastle. Warren Shaw, the precinct inspector, called it the "heaviest onslaught of voters I have seen in 10 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.

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.

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.

Overall, neither party is expecting the kinds of poll-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 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.

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 waiving big Bush/Cheney banners stood on a pedestrian bridge over Aurora Avenue in North Seattle, apparently undeterred by the beating rain around 7 a.m.

Other Republican volunteers were manning phone banks at Western States Mortgage in Bellevue. Democrats were doing the same at the Boeing Machinists Union Hall, near Boeing Field in Seattle.

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.

"Inconvenience is a big deterrence for voting," said Lee, a volunteer with MoveOn, a political action committee that had some 2000 people scouring the state, mostly in Seattle, to mobilize Democrats.

In the University District, lawyers working for the Democrats were on hand to make sure that University of Washington students, whose previous residence was out of the state, but now were registered Washington voters, weren't turned away.

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.

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 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 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.

At Northminster Presbyterian Church in Ballard, where people from nine precincts vote, no one was waiting at mid-morning to cast their ballots in the 18 voting booths.

Michael Forebe, a Boeing engineer, takes a day of vacation to work as an election's inspector for the county, for which he gets paid $7.01 for the day at the church voting side.

Jennifer Doherty, 36, arrived with her daughter, Fiona, 4, both in rain parkas.

At this site, youngsters were given their own ballots to fill out for fun.

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

Her mother 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.

Fred Nesbitt, 76, a retired painting contractor who was born in London, England, came to vote not for any local issues, but for Kerry.

He said politics had degraded in the country.

"It's pretty sad," he said. "You hear people say, ' Anybody but Bush.' Can you imagine anybody saying 'Anybody by Churchill.' ? "

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 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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