Usually the Stranger Election Control Board spends the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas thinking up new ways to smuggle pot on an airplane, but this year a group of Kshama Sawant haters endeavored on some weaselly recall nonsense, so now we have to spend this time thinking about yet another fucking election. Luckily, this time only one question will appear on the ballot, and the answer is easy.
If you’re a registered voter who lives in Seattle’s District 3 — which includes Capitol Hill, the Central District, Madison Park, Madrona, Leschi, and parts of surrounding neighborhoods — then you should receive a ballot in the mail by Friday, November 19. (If you don’t receive a ballot that day, then check out VoteWA to see if you’re registered. If you’re not registered, you have until November 29 to do so online or by mail. If you believe you should have received a ballot but did not, then call the elections department at 206-296-8683 after Monday, Nov. 22, to figure out what’s going on.) When you get your hands on that ballot, rip open the envelope, fill out the “Recall No” bubble, slip it in the nearest drop box before December 7 at 8 pm, and then curse the Recall Sawant campaign for this goddamned tedious waste of time and energy.
Even if you harbor strong disagreements with Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, it is plainly undemocratic to overturn the will of the 2019 electorate with a recall vote sandwiched between two major travel holidays. The district’s local Democratic Party organization opposed this recall for exactly that reason, and they’re right.
Though King County hasn’t scheduled an election in December since it started keeping records in 2004, so-called “special elections” such as this one draw 25% less turnout on average. If successful, the right-wingers and corporate landlords funding this campaign will use this same tactic to go after every progressive leader who threatens their financial interests in Seattle and in the 30 other states across the country that allow for recalls in local elections.
Let’s be clear on that point.
