This post was filed by Jesse Piedmont.
Tonight’s returns put Mike McGinn into a narrow lead (McGinn has 50.03% to Joe Mallahan’s 48.96%) in the mayoral election and sent the hundreds of volunteers and supporters packed into The War Room on Capitol Hill into a (very) last-minute vote-scrounging frenzy.
After a brief speech from the candidate, McGinn campaign field coordinator Derek Farmer announced that the volunteers still had work to do. Given the extremely narrow margin of 910 votes, Farmer announced a plan to collect ballots from potential McGinn supporters who had yet to vote and drive the ballots Airport before midnight tonight Campaign volunteers distributed phone scripts for people to convince their less civically-minded friends that it’s not to late to vote. McGinn volunteers will collect ballots from five drop locations around the city by 11:00 tonight. Ballots sent from the airport can be postmarked today as late as midnight.
With a margin this narrow, the final outcome of the election likely won’t be known for has thinned out the crowd somewhat from what might have been a raucous celebration. Still, there are plenty of people at The War Room and the mood is jubilant. For his part, McGinn didn’t make any predictions about the outcome, instead praising the volunteers that have dedicated so much time to the campaign.
“To everybody who has committed to what Seattle can be in the future, thank you,” McGinn said. “It’s a good night.”
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Ha. This is pretty awesome.
The McGinn campaign has their own personal drop locations, and will personally deliver the boxes to SeaTac. I’m sure that’s going to get glossed over if he wins a close race.
Isn’t this illegal activity? I’ve worked on many campaigns and we were told that we were not allowed to mail another person’s ballot or give them a stamp.
According to Washington State Elections law: RCW 29A.48.050, Return of voted ballot. The voter shall return the ballot to the county auditor in the return identification envelope. Otherwise, the ballot must be deposited at the office of the county auditor or the designated place of deposit not later than 8:00 p.m. on the date of the primary election.
County election security procedures even provide for 2 elections workers to retrieve the ballots from the secure ballot drop boxes.
Allowing partisan campaign workers to return ballots smells bad even in the event it is legal. Remember the rule banning solicitation by campaign workers within so many feet of a voting location on election day? Given the purpose and sense of that rule, McGinn’s tactics need to be closely scrutinized by the appropriate officials.
The Obama campaign did this, so if it’s illegal, there’s at least plenty of precedent.
Did Obama’s campaign do this AFTER the first election results were announced?
@6
The Obama/Gregoire campaign was definitely doing this same thing on election day, offering to drive ballots to SeaTac as late as midnight. Whether they hatched the plan before or after results started coming in I have no idea. But I do know they stayed the course after they did.
@ 3: Seattlevoter, let’s say it was illegal to give another citizen a 44 cent stamp so that person could exercise the franchise. Wouldn’t you proudly give them a stamp and say, “Damn your stupid law and cart me off to jail!”??
It’s not 1934 anymore. Dip your toe into the water of civility. MMMMmmmmm. It actually feels pretty good!
The results were announced and then ten minutes later Derrik Farmer had 100 call sheets for us. Camp McGinn was definitely prepared for this. They did it in the primary as well. Fortunately they found people other than me to stand outside tonight.
Oh, it’s probably legal. But if Mallaspam loses, I highly doubt people (not necessarily the Mallaspam campaign either) are not going to squawk about this loophole in the process until KC addresses it. A campaign collecting and delivering ballots for voters is, on paper, a conflict of interest.
Correct me if I am wrong: The law states that mail in ballots have to be postmarked no later than Tuesday Nov, 3rd. (Election Day) The McGinn people were going to take ballots to the post office so they would have the required postmark to be counted.
What’s the problem?
Sounds like a smart plan to get all the votes possible in a tight election. Sounds like sour grapes from supporters of a candidate who didn’t think of doing something similar.
It’s only disingenuous in that the USPS generally does not accept mail at their post offices to postmark today past 5:30 pm. People don’t know they can roll up to SeaTac at 11:50 pm and drop off their mail to postmark today. Hell, I’m surprised they someone with a box of ballots in at all in the first place. What, did they lie and say they were with King County Elections? I wouldn’t put it past the McGinn campaign: He’s certainly no stranger to bending the truth.
Maybe not… maybe the USPS will let anyone witha parcel in the door if they show up. I still think both men are weak candidates and the City is going to turn into a legislative clown car once either of them takes office. I don’t think McGinn intercepting the election would ruin Seattle any more or less than Mallaspam winning a nailbiter would.
But this back door tactic, while technically legal right now, is not going to get overlooked if McGinn wins the election by a nose, and King County Elections likely closes this loophole once the inevitable outcry reaches their front door.
Gomez, it’s not a secret. People who are late sending out tax returns, college applications, etc, all know about the late post office. And multiple radio stations were reminding people that they still had time to drive down to the Seatac post office to get their ballots postmarked. They even quoted KC elections for confirming that this was possible.
And it’s not the post office’s job to question why someone is dropping off the envelops. If they’re stamped, they’ll mail them.
That’s fine, Gidge, and to be fair I can easily see that for a central station. But hand-trucking personal ballot boxes and banging the monkey for votes after initial results were posted, or even posting local results while ballots could still be submitted, is the big issue here.
McGinn is a fucking HERO. Go, Fight, Win.
The McGinn campaign has their own personal drop locations, and will personally deliver the boxes to SeaTac. I'm sure that's going to get glossed over if he wins a close race.