成人X站

It’s the day after election day — and all the focus is on which candidates won and which candidates lost.

But I would like to gin up a little excitement for a different race. A voter turnout race. A race to be the county that turns out the most voters, because the biggest lesson I learned in my brief political career was that if you don’t vote, you don’t exist. No politician is going to push programs that don’t get votes.

This means if a lot of people don’t vote — over time, the government becomes unresponsive.

More on the primary election: Blue Angels, and their noise, a good reminder of America鈥檚 war machine

Turnout is important, so maybe the answer is to appeal to our competitive spirit.

For example, as of the last ballot count, the top turnout goes to — not Snohomish County, not Pierce County, not King County … but to ! The south edge of the state along the Columbia! Now, they’ve only counted 3,491 ballots so far, but that’s enough for a turnout rate of 42.77%!

Way ahead of Pierce and King County, which are about 20% and Snohomish which is at approximately 22%.

I’m sure those numbers will improve, but come on people. Are we going to be outclassed by some tiny county with more elk than people? I actually don’t know how many elk they have, but the point is along with the partisan get-out-the-vote efforts, we need some non-partisan pride in our turnout numbers.

2023 King County election: Lowest voter turnout in nearly 90 years

But Dave — what about a reward for voter turnout? A prize for the winner? I’ve been thinking about that. How about, for the county with the best turnout, you get a state tax rebate. A nice fat check in the mail for everyone in the top-turnout county. Not only motivating you to vote, but motivating you to urge others to vote.

So I say offer a fat check to the county with the highest turnout. But even if it’s a skinny check, or just a coupon for an Italian soda, there has to be a way to hammer home the message that the real threat to democracy doesn’t come from any one candidate — the threat is from voters who just tune out.

Listen to 鈥淪eattle鈥檚 Morning News鈥� with Dave Ross and Colleen O鈥橞rien weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on 成人X站 Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast聽here.

More 成人X站 Newsradio Opinions

• Charlie Harger: Kamala Harris needs to start answering some press questions
• Dave Ross: Blue Angels, and their noise, a good reminder of America鈥檚 war machine
• Ursula Reutin: America is a melting pot and diversity is one of our greatest strengths