Evan Smith: McGlashan says many voters were disengaged

By Evan Smith 

ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

Shoreline City Councilman Keith McGlashan (pictured), the only member of the Council re-elected in November, says that many Shoreline voters were “disengaged” in the election.

“I’m guessing that the low participation of the all mail-in voting and passing up Shoreline voting altogether is a statement of the visible infighting and block voting that has been on the council for the last several years,” he told me last week.

McGlashan noted that the voter turnout in Shoreline was slightly higher then countywide but that many voters skipped the local races.

He said that many people saw his name alone on the ballot and didn’t realize that he had a write-in opponent, Wendy DiPeso.

“The final counts by position shows that there were a lot of voters that just passed up voting in position 1, probably assuming I was a shoo-in,” he said. “Position 1 received 2,026 less total votes then the next highest contested race and 3.001 less votes than the highest contested race. Lots of people told me when a candidate is unopposed they will write in Mickey Mouse or their mother. I even had one person tell me that they chose the write in option and wrote in my name.”

He added that it would be interesting to get the actual write in tallies to see how many of them were actually for DiPeso, although the expense is too much to bother with.

McGlashan is the first Shoreline Council incumbent re-elected in the last four years.

He said that some of the other incumbents suffered from the controversy that followed the firing four years ago of former City Manager Steve Burkett,

He said that Councilman Ron Hansen’s defeat may have happened because voters simply decided that it was time to move on.

McGlashan said that he is excited about the new council.

“I feel we will have a council of independent voices with three new members being sworn in on the 4th of January,” he said. “I look forward to working with all the Council to move the City forward.”