Don’t send in your ballot

Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman estimates that about half of the outstanding ballots for the General Election in the county have been returned.  That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 60,000 ballots already back and counted.

Wyman expects the remainder of the ballots to be back in her office by the day after the election and postmarked prior to election night.  Many of the people will vote this weekend she says.

But, if you follow my advice, the county auditor will have less ballots to count.

Don’t vote.  Don’t send in your ballot.  As far as I can tell, all of us who care about the election and who know the candidates and the issues, have already voted.  Those who haven’t voted yet either don’t know the candidates and the issues, or don’t care.

Alright, admit it.  You know who you’re going to vote for for president, and you know who you’re going to vote for for governor.  You may even know how you’re going to vote on one of the ballot measures.   But, you don’t know a thing about the rest of the candidates or issues on the ballot.

So, I say, don’t vote.  If you haven’t already mailed in your ballot – – don’t.  Here’s my reasoning.

With 60,000 ballots already cast, we can say for sure that the governor has already been decided as has the president.  So, your ballot is basically worthless.  You don’t know the other candidates on the ballot, so you’ll just vote for some name you recognize.  That’s why 92 percent of all incumbents are returned to office – – people who vote for a name they recognize.

For all practical purposes the election is already over and your vote will do nothing to change the outcome one way or the other.  And, if you just guess at the other names on the ballot, you’re making a decision based on ignorance and an ignorant ballot is more dangerous than not voting at all.

If you haven’t already sent in your ballot – don’t.