There was nothing odd, wrong, or suspicious about Seattle’s election results. They sure felt slow, but they weren’t.
Someone tell that to outgoing Mayor Bruce Harrell and Seattle Police Officer’s Guild President Mike Solan. They seem misinformed.
Yesterday, at his concession speech, the always-extemporaneous Harrell offered some off-hand election misinformation.
“A lot of people were saying that I shouldn’t concede and that there were anomalies, differences, and stuff,” Harrell said, before skating past that and lauding himself for conceding anyway.
Halei Watkins from King County Elections said she didn’t know what Harrell was referring to. “There’s been nothing amiss on our end,” she wrote in an email. “Happy to chase something down if there are specifics or more information.”
Neither the Harrell campaign nor the mayor’s office responded to The Stranger’s requests for comment about Harrell’s claims that there were “anomalies,” so Watkins had nothing to chase down.
In a statement Friday, Seattle Police Officer Guild President Solan suggested that the election process, which was no different from previous elections, needed reform.
“The vote count for Seattle’s next mayor took so long that I almost forgot we had an election. And much like public safety in Seattle, our election process needs to be reformed. SPOG members also want to thank Mayor Harrell for his efforts to build back SPD. We look forward to continuing his legacy with Mayor-Elect Wilson.”
SPOG did not respond to The Stranger’s request for comment.
According to King County Elections, nothing was different from this election compared to other odd-year elections. Typically, people vote earlier and more consistently during even-year elections when there are national races on the ballot. Odd-year elections inspire more last-minute voting, Watkins says. The slower feeling this election had to do with a more than 30 percent uptick in voter turnout in the last day of the election, with most of those people opting to use ballot boxes.
“I went back and looked at posting numbers from 2023 and 2021 and we are right in line with our pace from those years,” Watkins said last week.
Ben Anderstone, a political consultant who worked on Sara Nelson’s campaign, writes in a text message to The Stranger that there’s “absolutely nothing suspicious here.”
“We had slightly higher turnout than expected, and King County took the normal amount of time to count—in pace with many other counties. Neither is an ‘anomaly.’ Neither is even particularly weird. Anyone who is worried about fraud can easily go to the Elections website and download a list of every voter who returned a ballot. The voter file is very much public record.”
“I don’t think we should be slinging around claims of election irregularities without meaningful evidence,” he writes.
In the weeks before election day, Harrell signed off on a new SPOG contract that boosted Seattle Police Department starting salaries by 42 percent to almost $120,000, according to a report by Publicola.
While Wilson is in favor of hiring more cops, she was critical of Harrell’s handling of the SPOG contract, saying he should have negotiated more accountability measures and more alternative response capacity like the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) team. Historically, SPOG has resisted expanding the CARE team, but in the new contract, SPOG acquiesced to a twofold increase in CARE team members and more direct power for those responders. Wilson has also nodded toward decreasing the power of SPOG.
Sowing seeds of doubt in a fair election is a playbook we know well. “Losing candidates who cast unfounded suspicion on election results have unfortunately become far too normalized over the past five years,” Kate Bitz, a senior organizer at the Western States Center, a pro-Democracy nonprofit, tells The Stranger.
Bitz points out that Solan has a history of playing into right-wing misinformation. In 2021, he blamed the January 6 insurrection—which was about a “stolen election”—on the “far right and far left.” Solan and SPOG also inhibited investigations into SPD officers who attended the insurrection, trying to protect them from “cancel culture.” Bitz called those actions “especially reckless… evidence-free musings.”
Comments like this “[diminish] civic trust,” and have “negative effects on voter participation, and even threats and political violence.”
Above all, Bitz believes these comments from Harrell and Solan undermine the will of the people.
“Seattle voters deserve better than to have their choice disrespected like this,” Bitz says. “The King County Elections Office also deserves better than insinuations from public servants undermining their hard work to provide a secure, reliable process.”
News editor Vivian McCall contributed reporting.
Katie Wilson was elected by approximately 27.8% of Seattle’s registered voters. 3 out of every 4 registered voters in Seattle were not motivated to vote for her. She is our mayor? This is democracy? My hope is that the federal government sends help to clean up our streets.
@1 You know what doesn’t matter even the slightest little bit?
The wants and needs of people who don’t vote.
@1 If you don’t like the results, run for office, GOTV, boost candidates, get civically involved. Posting some vague allegation that the election was somehow undemocratic is weak— you know how elections work. I know the Stranger loves content engagement but wish they’d consider shutting down comments on certain posts. Nobody has a right to create distrust in our community.
What a bunch of pathetic, sore losers.
Also, there’s nothing stopping you from beautifying our city or otherwise making our neighborhoods a better place. Shut your laptop and be part of the solution, man.
unrepresented dear, I know that being a victim is part of the “conservative” mindset, because it absolves you from having to take personal responsibility for your poor life choices and allows you to feel sorry for yourself, but I find it amusing that you decided to create an account here on Slog to whine about it.
While I share your disappointment in the low voter turnout, there was nothing untoward about this election, and I’m disappointed that Mayor Harrell would make such an insinuation. Seattle voters are perfectly capable of making poor decisions all on their own.
“Seattle voters are perfectly capable of making poor decisions all on their own.”
They definitely have shown that to be the case time and again.
@1 Your boy Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million in 2016. Was that democracy?
Every general election has anomalies. Many tens of thousands of persons will not all complete their ballots perfectly. Filling a ballot is, at most, a twice-a-year event, and therefore not often enough for practice to make perfection. If Harrell, Sloan, or anyone else has any evidence of anything nefarious, then they can present their evidence. Otherwise, any claim made without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
(And the least unusual thing about this election was Seattle dumping an incumbent mayor.)
@7 I mostly agree with you here, but I find that I not infrequently get more than two opportunities per year to vote here in Seattle, which I think is ridiculous. I wish there would be some consolidation of elections (or else just take it to the people, & let us vote on everything, which would also be ok with me)
It was AIPAC! They stole the election with their AIPAC! You know “they” are! 😂
Katie won the election based on policies that had broad appeal.
Who doesn’t want free housing, free childcare, free transportation and reduced grocery prices?
Seattle voters are smart and, guided by The Stranger, they knew Bruce wasn’t offering these things.
“The vote count for Seattle’s next mayor took so long that I almost forgot we had an election. And much like public safety in Seattle, our election process needs to be reformed.”
–chief of s.p.o.g,
echoing Cadet Bonespurs
who Demands the ELECTION
counting BE OVER AT 8 PM PRECISELY.*
cuz How Else’re
the fasciis Ever
gonna Win?
*oh
And
maybe
‘they’ could
Do Something
about the “quality”
of the Electorate? like
maybe . . . be Whiter, richer
and More ofa summa Bitcher?
@10
no
just
Make
Housing
Unfucking
Affordable &
the Same with
healthcare, childcare
etc etc etc because thee
Richest Country in the History
of the Known (and Unknown!) fucking
UNIVERSE “cannot fucking AFFORD IT.”
Maybe we merely
Need MORE
Billionaires?
@12: Usually, the point of comment is not the first word.
@13
ok
So
just
Make
Housing
Unfucking
Affordable &
the Same with
healthcare, childcare
etc etc etc because thee
Richest Country in the History
of the Known (and Unknown!) fucking
UNIVERSE “cannot fucking AFFORD IT”?
Maybe we merely
Need MORE
Billionaires?
@unfathomable:
you meant
“Katie”?
@14: You’re not understanding me. Typically the point of a comment is not at the top.
@14
okay!
Now I Am
‘understanding you,’
you’d like for me to respond
to a Different point than
the one I Wanted to
respond to. Why
didn’t you just
Say that?
perhaps
it’s your
Obtusity
makes you
‘a conservative’?
c. have you ever
ordered a
pizza?
d. from
a Person?
e.
didja
get the
Extra Spit?
and, f:
wouldja
Know it
if ya Did?
I a livid that BH so casually spreads disinformation and distrust in our very secure vote counting system. He knows it’s the envy of other cities yet he does the trump thing “some people say”there were anomalies so he can pretend he isn’t stoking distrust. I plan to hound him for a public apology. Good riddance.
corporate
‘centrists”ve
Gotta keep Up
with the Far Wrong
Wing who keep moving
the Goalposts with Lightening-
like Alacrity because when you’re
Mission is to Destroy the World, proper,
you gotta Move whilst the Iron is HOTT.
does that mean They get
a Free Pass?
fuck
that
shit.
Good comment,
sarahdee.
@16: My God, do I have to spell it out for you? I thought you were one to think
outside of the box. I mean you’re so clever with your typography, that I was
sure you’d see it right away. The point of a comment is its most important
thought which is usually made in the the second or the last clause of the
sentence to leave the reader with a with the most important concept
as the last or near the last of what you are trying to say to folks.
You’re such a dufus that if it was a snake it would have bit
you. You actually made the point in comment @12
but it’s upside down! You silly boy. The point
of the comment, you insanely dumb dildo
is that it is at the very last part of the
sentence. Yes at the very very
end. So kristofarian, do
you finally get the
point?
that’s why I call it kristofartian
kristofartian is really Calvin Priest
Kshama Sawant’s husband
count on it
@KkKoolie
nope. Still don’t
‘get it’! [‘This’ is How
Obtusity ‘works’] but it’s
Good to see you untethered
from your Chains of Horizontality!*
from your Gem, above:
“The point of a comment is its most impor-
tant thought which is usually made in the
the second or the last clause of the
sentence to leave the reader with
a with the most important con-
cept as the last or near the
last of what you are try-
ing to say . . . “
I may need a day (or two!)
of Intense Study to see if
I can get to the Meat of
your comment, which
Currently has me scr-
atching my Eyeballs
out but, Obviously!
That’s on Me! your
Help is, of Course
Greatly Appreciated.
*you show great Promise
even More than the
Wormtongue who
Struggled Might-
ily to fit his over-
whelming intel-
lect into any
Sort of Dec-
ent Pattern
in the End, it was
his Invectives and Not his
Massive Intellect what, surprisingly,
to Me, anyway, finally did ol’ wormmy in
@Sharpie
damn! I’ve been
Outted by a piece
of Cutlery. well done!
@24 – I know, Calvin Priest. It must suck to be married to Kshama Sawant. You have no balls so you come here on Slog to take out all your frustrations.
kristofartian is Calvin Priest.
Very well done on my part indeed.
well
Goody
yet Another
angry young Troll
to darken derr Schlogg’s door
speaking of Invective.
@26-
Boo hoo
Calvin
Priest
“to darken derr Schlogg’s door”
What is it in you that makes you imagine that it is “clever” to write things that way?
troll
Away
little troll
Troll Away
Why do you call it “derr Schlogg”?
Are you trying to imply that Slog is a Nazi outlet?
What is funny or clever about that?
‘You
have no
balls so you
come here on
Slog to take out
all your frustrations.’
–@Sharpie
projecting whilst
seeking Counseling
for a Problem that is likely
Generational. let’s Hope and
Pray he won’t merely Pass it on.
bugger off,
young troll
Bugger Off.
and seek Help.
Please. thnx!
kristofartian is Calvin Priest, Kshama Sawant’s cuck husband everybody lol
@31
to Further
Complicate things
the Patient is also showing
increasing signs of Echolalia
whilst not Dangerous it can be
quite Disturbing to Readers
of certain leftist publications
Unless said Publications’re Also In-
flicted with the Dreaded Bipps ‘Buggers”
Syndrome & have become Quite Inured to it.
please
make a
Note of it.
@28: “What is it in you that makes you imagine that it is “clever” to write things that way?”
It’s a consequence of the writers’ adage, “If your story is merely of the usual sort, then at least tell it in an unusual way.” (E.g. start by dropping the audience into the middle of your story, thus automatically giving your audience a puzzle to solve.) kristo’ never has anything new or interesting to say, so he intends for his ‘artistic’ malformatting and “clever” nicknames to compensate for his tediously chronic lack of substance. It doesn’t work, but he can loudly claim it does (which, as even he knows, is the closest thing to validation he can ever possibly hope to get) so he obstreperously posts it in the ‘win’ column anyway.
@34
omg
Well-Done
Wormtongue!
Right. on. Cue!
& your Projections?
the Crisco-based*
Frosting on the Cake.
I owe you one, buddy!
*no
Relation