Columbia City Votes on Election Day 2008

November 5th, 2008 | Life in This Town, Photo

These kids spilling out of the school killed me. They said they’d held a Kids Vote at the New School. Let’s see, Barack Obama got 338 votes to John McCain’s 35. Rough day for John! Bob Barr (I know!) got 5 votes. Each of the “girls” got 4 votes apiece, I’m told. These kids have a pretty impressive head for numbers. Better than mine, anyway.

These residents had just cast their votes:

Arthur Pressley has lived in the Columbia City area for 40 years. He has voted in every election. He is 74 years old.

I also got some election literature which had a Chinese translation on the back. Is Chinese really the dominant second language in Columbia City? Makes no sense to me.

Mernie Zahnow is a King County poll worker who is a Columbia City resident. She is 82 years old. She wanted a copy of her portrait but did not have an email address. I took her street address instead.

I filled out an absentee ballot on November 3rd at home with the aid of endorsement grids that I found on the internet. I almost could not imagine myself standing for as long as many of these voters did — without internet access — to fill out a ballot.

King and Pierce Counties are the only ones left this year to offer polling stations like these. They will soon join the rest of Washington State in having an all-mail voting system. Like the stickers said, “Farewell to polls.”

Katie L. Wilson is a King County poll worker who lives in the Central Area. She’s been a poll worker for at least 26 years and is 79 years old.

Teachers at the Columbia School led their classes through the gymnasium intermittently to show their students an historic, real-life civics lesson.

Trish Emory and Jill Tonge-Seymour (joined by a Columbia City resident who had just voted) were smiling and waving Obama-Biden signs at the corner of S Ferdinand St and Rainier Ave S. They were getting lots of happy honks. They don’t live in the neighborhood but today wanted to stand at a corner where they felt a strong connection.