Comments on: “Retain” landslide

By: Randy Peck

Randy Peck — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

It is interesting to see the argument I used to describe the prior election of Veitz, Vela, Patrick and Johnson when they were elected and felt they had a mandate being used here to contest the Weatherwax vote. Maybe people should work to get more participation and thus a better representation of the citizenship. However, citizenship has a duty to vote, sit on juries, and participate in public debate on the issues. Do we have our High School Students register to vote when they turn 18? Do we see register to vote tables at IGA, ACE, Ocean Shores Theater, McDonalds, or the various coffee shacks? Maybe we should promote it more. Voting by mail could not be easier. Maybe we need to have the ballots already stamped. It would cost us more, but maybe it would increase response. Who knows. We can only hope that the current economy will drive people to future pollings. You can lead a horse to water, but you can not make it drink.

By: Tom Scanlon

Tom Scanlon — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

Mr. Stermer-Cox, I just checked with Mr. Spatz again, he verified the number of ballots mailed to Ocean Shores as 3,279. Not sure where you’re getting the 4,000-plus figure. -tom

By: Robert Stermer-Cox

Robert Stermer-Cox — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

After another conversation with Grays Harbor Elections folks this morning, the 772 ballots in question were possibly returned as undeliverable. Whether someone fails to vote because they don’t care or didn’t keep their address correct is moot. The fact is that over half of Ocean Shores “active registered” voters failed to cast a ballot and, thus, 34.1% of active registered voters got Weatherwax passed – far from a majority of those who are able to vote. I don’t think this is what the founders of this country had in mind.

By: Robert Stermer-Cox

Robert Stermer-Cox — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

That’s odd because I called the Grays Harbor County Elections office on Friday and was given a district by district count of registered voters and THAT count totaled 4051. Makes me wonder what happened to the other 772 ballots???

By: Tom Scanlon

Tom Scanlon — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

See post above:
According to Vern Spatz, Grays Harbor County Auditor, 3,279 ballots were mailed to Ocean Shores residents.

By: Robert Stermer-Cox

Robert Stermer-Cox — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000

The statement: “The total of votes counted was right around two-thirds of Ocean Shores’ registered voters..” is incorrect. There are 4051 REGISTERED voters in Ocean Shores. If 2010 voted that means that means that only 34.1% of the registered voters shoved Weatherwax down our throats. That’s the problem with participatory democracy – more than half didn’t even bother to participate.