If you’re living under a rock, or you’re the apolitical one of your friend group receiving this article via text message or frantic DM, listen up. We still don’t know who the Mayor of Seattle is going to be. 

Whatever happens will be decided along razor thin margins. We’re potentially in recount territory, political consultants say. A mandatory machine recount only happens if a candidate wins by less than half a percent or less than 2,000 votes. Former mayor Greg Nickels hypothesized that the election could be decided by 65 votes out of more than 280,000 total ballots  cast (very specific, Greg.) If Nickels is right, we’re in mandatory hand recount, which requires a difference of less than 250 votes and 0.25 percent of the vote total. 

So the 1,930 ballots currently being challenged (as of blog time) for no signature, non-matching signatures, or other signature-related issues could actually decide this election. If you are a Seattle voter, you must check your ballot and make sure everything is kosher. Your power is immense right now. Your civic duty is not over.

It’s time to put the youth on, as they say, blast. There are 426 challenged ballots for 18-24 year olds. If you know a young voter in Seattle, yell at them in words they understand. Say something like, “You have to check your ballot, no cap.” The 475 ballots cast by 25 to 34 year old voters must be resuscitated. Tell those voters checking their signature will prove for certain whether they are Gen Z or millennial. 

Elder millennials are erring, too. Imply to them that solving their signature issues is a kind of Hogwarts house quiz and then maybe 369 of them will fix their ballot problems. The rest of the age groups aren’t doing as poorly; The 45 to 46-year-olds have 236 challenged ballots, the 55 to 64-year-olds have 183, and the over 65 camp has 241 ballot issues.

Fixing your ballot is easy. Here’s how to do it:

1. Go to votewa.org to check if your ballot has issues. If it does, you can solve it online.
2. Sign up to track your ballot. Doing so will trigger alerts from King County and you can correct any problems there.
3. Check your texts, emails, or mailbox. King County Elections will have sent you communications about any ballot issues depending on what contact information they have for you. 

Whatever method you choose to resolve your ballot problems, you must fix your shit by Nov. 24 at 4:30 p.m. Do it! Tell your friends to do it. The future of Seattle depends on you.