Don’t think I’ve ever voted so quickly in my life! Our ballots arrived in the mail on Thursday (I think), and as soon as I wrapped up my work day, I grabbed the WA state voter’s guide and started going through the ballot to cast my votes. About 30-45 minutes later, I was finished!
Normally I like to hold on to my ballot before mailing it back, in case there’s anything that happens in the last couple weeks before election day that might influence how I vote. But this year, with me being decided early on how I planned to vote in many races, and with the rumors of many more people voting by mail, I figured it’s best to get it done earlier rather than later. (To be clear, though, WA state has been 100% vote by mail for like 15 years now, so I don’t expect any issues here.)
As I’ve been doing for many years, when I finished I tallied up how I voted. I’m usually really moderate and tend to vote about 60-40 on the conservative side. But in the primary a couple months ago, I flipped and voted for more liberal candidates/issues.
In this general election? Here’s how it played out:
- Republican/conservative candidates or issues: 8
- Democratic/liberal candidates or issues: 13
- Independent/other candidates or issues: 0
So again, I basically flipped how I historically vote. I’m still very much in the middle, but 13 out of 21 is 62% on the liberal/Democratic side.
I also tallied up gender votes — 17 votes were for male candidates, 10 for female candidates. In the six races where it was male vs. female, I voted for the female five times.
One more thing, and this speaks to how moderate I am politically. A streak has ended this year. I haven’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 2004, and I haven’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1996. One of those streaks is over. You’ll have to guess which one. 🙂
So now we sit and wait. In a vote-by-mail stats like ours, it’s often the case that some races aren’t decided for several days or even a week or two. I sure hope we get some clarity on November 3, but I’m ready to be patient.
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