As the November 8 election approaches, The Stranger dug up the voting histories of our state’s most esteemed leaders—local billionaires, rockers, authors, and broken moral compasses—because, well, why the fuck not? We like snooping. And besides, these people are often stumping for their own pet issues and funding campaigns, so we wanted to know: Are they even regular voters?
For our investigation, we used records from the Washington State secretary of state’s office and www.statevoices.org. We counted every general and primary election between 2000 and 2010—meaning that a perfect voting record would be 11 GE votes and 11 primary votes. Here’s how they voted:
Krist Novoselic, Nirvana bassist and former Dem party operative
11 General elections, 6 primary
Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jammer, Rock the Vote advocate
5 GE, 1 primary
Ann Wilson, half of Heart
4 GE, 2 primary
Ben Gibbard, 94 percent of Death Cab for Cutie
4 GE, 1 primary
Kemper Freeman, Bellevue Square owner and wannabe light-rail murderer
11 GE, 9 primary
Tim Eyman, initiative troll
9 GE, 10 primary
Bill Gates, Microsoft cofounder, supports income taxes for top earners
11 GE, 10 primary
Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO
6 GE, 3 primary
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, opposes income taxes for top earners
5 GE, 2 primary
Paul Allen, Microsoft cofounder and all-around asshole
5 GE, 1 primary
Jeff Bezos, Amazon mogul and libertarian douchebag
5 GE, 0 primary
Pastor Ken “No Buttsex” Hutcherson
9 GE, 9 primary
Keli Carender, Tea Party founder, blogger
9 GE, 6 primary
Pastor Mark “Masturbation is sinly and so is Avatar, the movie” Driscoll
4 GE, 0 primary
Tom Robbins, Jitterblerg Perblerg, nonsensical writer
11 GE, 9 primary
Nancy Pearl, librarian, Book Lust
10 GE, 8 primary
Stephanie Coontz, feminist, Marriage, A History…
10 GE, 4 primary
Sherman Alexie, Reservation Blues
9 GE, 10 primary
Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
8 GE, 1 primary
Benjamin John Francis Fodor (secret identity: superhero Phoenix Jones!)
Has never voted
Maria Cantwell, bang-up democrat
11 GE, 10 primary
Susan Hutchison, failed King County Exec candidate
10 GE, 6 primary
Macklemore, raps about Seattle and sneakers
5 GE, 1 primary
Sir Mix-a-Lot, raps about carz and butts
2 GE, 0 primary
Jeff Wright, born lucky
11 GE, 1 primary
Tom Skerritt, actor, grandfather of happy hours
9 GE, 6 primary
Dale “I make people make glass” Chihuly
8 GE, 7 primary
Cliff Mass, weather and math geek
11 GE, 10 primary
Rick Steves, travel guru
11 GE, 7 primary
Steve “Guess What I’m Thinking” Scher
9 GE, 8 primary
Tom Douglas, talks about sandwiches, etc.
9 GE, 6 primary.
Shouldn’t that be “Rick Steves- travel guru, pothead”?
@1 just because you smoke pot doesn’t make you a “pothead”. Are all appletini drinkers pussies? Oh, wait. Nevermind.
I’m impressed by Bill Gates. That guy puts his money where his mouth is and then tries not to choke. I wonder which primary he missed? He probably had like a disgustingly good reason…
I thought Novoselic was gonna get involved in Pacific County politics? Ain’t heard much lately…
Why are Libs douchebags? Out of everyone they make the most sense. Repubs and Dems are just the same. Look at Obama most of what he has done has been a continuation of what W has done. And yes I did vote for Obama… I feel duped
For next time, it would be more useful if you included the number of times they could have taken part in a GE or primary. From this it appears Ann Wilson has voted as often as Ben Gibbard – but she’s twice is age (or something). So those of us that want to tsk tsk our local celebs, sandwich makers, and frizzy-haired artist/pirates would be able to do so more accurately and pointedly if you gave us a percentage to work with here. I know that would require you to collect info on birth dates and maybe do some math, but you’ve got time before the next election to get it together. Maybe include the percentage for local news reporters too?
Whoa, CELEBRITY list?
What about the guy who played Les Nessman? WTF! OUTRAGE!
(seriously; WTG patriots Bill Gates, Tom Robbins, Maria Cantwell and Cliff Mass!)