Have You Voted Yet? What are you waiting for!? Nearly 1.9 million Washingtonians—about 44 percent of registered voters—have already submitted their ballots.
Need Help Filling Out Your Ballot? We have your back. Here are the Stranger Election Control Board’s endorsements. (We even have a cheat sheet!)
Not Sure Where to Submit Your Ballot? Here’s a map of all the ballot drop boxes in King County. (PS: You don’t need a stamp for these!)
Need Proof for Why Your Vote Is Important Right Here in Washington? Look no further than the race for Secretary of State between incumbent Kim Wyman (hell no) and Tina Podlodowski (hell yes). On Friday, The New York Times revealed that right-wing Republican groups including the National Rifle Association, National Restaurant Association, and Reynolds American (AKA: Big Tobacco) have met with Wyman and other secretaries of state to try to influence ballot initiatives. One of those initiatives is Washington’s chance to raise the statewide minimum wage. Unsurprisingly, Wyman “dismissed allegations that the meetings influenced her treatment of ballot measures, including the minimum wage initiative on this fall’s ballot, because in Washington the secretary of state does not write ballot titles or pro/con statements and because that ballot measure easily qualified for the ballot,” Stranger reporter Heidi Groover wrote.
Speaking of Buying Influence: Groups of tech and finance billionaires have dumped more than a half a million dollars into Judge Dave Larson’s campaign to unseat Supreme Court Justice Charlie Wiggins. (The SECB endorsed Wiggins.) Why would powerful people like Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer spend energy trying to oust Wiggins? Because they are pissed off that Justice Wiggins supported the court’s decision to sanction the state until it fully funds state education and the majority ruling that charter schools are unconstitutional, Sydney Brownstone reports.
Things to Do After You’ve Done Your Civic Duty: Come party with us tomorrow! Dan Savage will be leading us through the Big Night of this nail-bitingly frustrating, anxiety-ridden election. There will be alcohol. If you’re too cool for our party/potentially drunk sob fest, tune in to Slog. SECB members will be running around the city and sending dispatches from other election parties, too.
A Final Election Reminder from the POTUS Himself:
Facebook Does Have a Role In Political Discourse Whether Mark Zuckerberg Likes It or Not: And it goes far beyond giving your racist grandma and misogynistic coworkers a venue to spew hate. While Facebook’s algorithm used to “curate” posts that they think users will enjoy—baby photos, wedding announcements, and too many photos of your neighbor’s cats—it’s more like a supermarket tabloid than anything, writes Timothy B. Lee for Vox.
Facebook’s algorithm doesn’t take into account whether a particular story is accurate or not. If it generates a lot of “engagement,” it gets moved to the top of the pile. And often, a sensational-but-wrong story will generate more engagement than a story that accurately explains that nothing nefarious actually happened.
Two WA Electors May Refuse to Vote for Hillary Clinton and Vote Bernie Sanders Instead: Robert Satiacum, a member of the Puyallup Tribe, told The Seattle Times that he would not cast his vote for Clinton and hopes that a President Trump would wake up the country. Bret Chiafolo, a resident of Everett, said he wouldn’t commit to voting for Clinton. In a phone interview from the front lines of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, Satiacum told the Associated Press that Clinton “will not get my vote, period. … She doesn’t care about my land or my air or my fire or my water.” If Satiacum and Chiafolo cast their votes for Sanders instead of Clinton, they will be fined $1,000 and may face arrest. As Tricia Romano, Stranger editor-in-chief, noted yesterday, it is their duty as electors is to represent the people of Washington.
In Non-Election News, Gov. Jay Inslee Wants to Prepare for The Big One: In case the Northwest does see a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, Inslee wants us to be prepared. On Nov. 4, Inslee issued a directive to state agencies to form a subcabinent within Resilient Washington, which would help educate the public about disaster preparedness and how to deal with the destruction of major roads, bridges, and airports. “We know the question isn’t ‘if’ a large-scale earthquake will happen in our state, but how well we will be prepared,” Inslee said in a statement.
