Evan Smith: Looking back at the November 2017 election

Evan Smith

By Evan Smith

Shoreline part of record-low state voter turnout, but LFP better

The city of Shoreline’s voter turnout in the November 7 election was even lower than the record-low statewide turnout of 37.1 percent.

Lake Forest Park’s turnout, however, exceeded both the state turnout and the King County turnout of 42.7 percent.

Shoreline had a turnout of 36.6 percent. Lake Forest Park had a turnout of 47.7 percent. They combined for a Shoreline School District turnout of 40.6 percent.

Washington’s statewide turnout was kept down because the ballot had no statewide initiatives, referenda or constitutional amendments for the first election in 45 years. King County turnout, however, was kept high by Seattle’s turnout of 49.1 percent.

Shoreline and Lake Forest Park each had four city council positions on the ballot, but two incumbents in Shoreline and three in Lake Forest Park ran unopposed.

Lots of voters skipped school-board races

Nearly 14 percent of voters in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park left the school-board positions blank on the November 7 ballot.

In Lake Forest Park, 11.7 percent of voters skipped the city’s one contested city-council position on the November ballot. The 998 blank ballots was far more than incumbent John Wright’s 94-vote margin over challenger Benjamin Gonzalez O'Brien.

In Shoreline, 7 percent of voters passed over the most hotly contested council race, in which incumbent Keith McGlashan defeated challenger Jin-Ah Kim by a 54.6 percent to 44.9 percent margin.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com