The Stranger Election Control Board hosted our first "First Quadrennial Voting Party!" back in 2012.

You see, kids, back in olden tymes, voters went to polling places on election days. We voted together in community centers, church basements, and gay bathhouses. We have mail-in ballots now and mail-in ballots are way better because they make voting easier for folks who had a hard time getting to polling places on election day: the elderly and sadly housebound, the young and forgetfully high, the overworked and completely stressed. But some members of the SECB missed the communal aspect of voting—voting with your friends and neighbors—and so the first quadrennial voting party was born. Our voting party improved on polling places in two big ways: the voters could have a drink while they voted and mix with the candidates too.

We said the voting party would be a quadrennial affair—a presidential-election year thing—but we're bringing it back a year early... and not because we can't count to four. We're hosting a Voting Party this year because the city council races are at least as compelling (at least they are to the SECB) as a presidential election. So grab your ballot and come to the Comet on October 20th! Have a drink! Meet the SECB! Meet the candidates! Offer Jon Grant a bribe! Explain the difference between transgender and transistor to Pamela Banks! Ask Kshama Sawant what, if anything, she does for fun! Then vote! King County Election is sending an official ballot dropbox to the event so you can drink, vote, and drop your ballot off in the same convenient location!