When people think about what is most important to think about in politics, it is often thought that who becomes president is the most important thing. But what about who becomes governor? Who will become mayor? Who will accurately represent the people of the many districts of Washington in Olympia? State and local elections are often forgotten about, but often have the most impact on the daily life of Washingtonians.
Why aren’t local and state elections a main focus in the election season?
Local and state elections are often put in the back of peoples’ minds because of the difference of media attention that national elections have versus our local and state elections.
“I think that it’s easier to track what’s happening on a national level because they have a much wider platform of media,” AP Government teacher Ms. Healy said, “the way that national elections have more media attention, I do think that sometimes overshadows local and state elections.”
Overshadowing of state and local elections has happened in recent weeks with the Presidential debate and Gubernatorial debate. The Presidential debate between candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris had widespread media attention and viewed by about 67 million people. But what some might not know is that there was also a Gubernatorial debate that same night between Washington’s candidates for Governor Dave Reichart and Bob Ferguson. The debate was met with very little media attention and viewed by about 27 thousand people out of the about 7.7 million people who live in Washington.
“I’m sure most people at Seattle Prep could tell you who the two people are running for president, I think that there would be fewer people that could tell you the two people running for governor in the state.” said Healy. Yet the policies that come from the governor’s office could “Potentially have more impact than the policies of the president (for the state), or certainly have an equal impact.” Healy said.
“There’s so many other big-time elections that are happening that sometimes the local ones get drowned out by the federal elections that are getting more national attention and news.” said Seattle City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth. She also points out how “over stimulation” of information can overwhelm a voter during a big election like the one we are having this year.
Senior Zach Hansen worked this summer as a lead in gubernatorial candidate Dave Reichert’s field program. He worked in King County and went from door-to-door, talking to people about Dave Reichert.
“I got to contact a lot of voters through door knocking and phone banking. It was really valuable to have discussions with people, it was cool to listen about the issues that are important to people.” Said Hansen.
Hansen also shared an interesting story where one of the people he was chatting with had no idea that current governor, Jay Inslee, is not running for re-election this year.
“There was one person who was saying, oh Dave’s okay but I think I’ll just vote for Inslee again.” Many people remain uninformed about initiatives and politicians that are on the ballot up until they vote in November.
Why should we care about local and state elections?
“Local politicians affect your day-to-day life more so than the federal ones.” Said Seattle City Council member Joy Hollingsworth. Local and state governments can fix problems in the community on a more direct level. Many concerns of people like homelessness, lack of affordable housing, traffic, public transportation, etc. are often things that fall under the responsibility of the local government like the Seattle City Council. State governments also cover issues like health and safety of the community, certain taxes, and elections.
“Local elections are equally important for us to care about and participate in.” ASB President Kenny Ouedraogo said. We not only vote for mayors and representatives, but we also vote for people who run local schools, our state supreme court justices, and initiatives that affect our daily lives.
“You could ask anybody how a president affect their lives and they might not know the day-to-day life aspect. But they remember when the City Council voted to raise taxes on something that affected them every day.” Hollingsworth said.
How can we help promote local and state government elections?
One of our most powerful tools is knowledge and being informed. We can help keep ourselves informed about local and state government elections by reading the Washington State voters’ pamphlet and paying close attention while watching the news to look for reports about local and state elections.
“I think one of the ways we can do is better like social media outreach show people the importance of voting.” Hollingsworth said. Social media is such a prominent thing in our everyday lives and is frequently used as a tool to help reach millions of people to promote a wider issue.
Another thing Hollingsworth said we can do is to get rid of the notion that our vote doesn’t matter. Often in our city council races, the winner comes down to a few hundred votes or even just thirty votes. This puts into perspective how much the individual vote matters and how one vote can make a difference.
In the words of Ouedraogo, “All elections are important and have significant impacts on our lives, weather we know it or not.”
