Last night on my way to drop off my ballot, I met Debo the dog and Debos owners, who were dropping off ballots, too.
Last night while walking to drop off my ballot, I met Debo the dog, whose owners were doing the same thing. Photo by Christopher Frizzelle

You have already voted, right? You got that done days ago? Sealed the ballot in its envelope and dropped it, no stamp needed, in one of these ballot drop boxes spread throughout King County?

Wait, you haven't? You haven't voted yet? What is WRONG with you? The Stranger sat through so many unbelievably boring meetings to make this as easy as possible for you. (What, you want it even easier? HERE!) We don't expect thanks. We don't demand donations (although we encourage them). We just want you to vote, okay?

Much to our surprise, a few of you have thanked us. This primary season, the emails that have been coming our way have been... shockingly nice! The commenters on the endorsements page are foaming at the mouth, as always, accusing us of misogyny or laziness or whatever else they can think of to explain when we don't endorse whichever particular person they wanted us to endorse, but the letters to the editor we've gotten have a very different vibe.

A reader named Jenn writes:

A thank you to The Stranger for y’all’s work on endorsements for elections. Each time I vote I spend hours researching the smaller offices I’m not as sure about (I started keeping an eye on Girmay Zahilay after y’all’s over the moon endorsement last year and so flipping hope he runs for mayor next year!) and am always happiest when I am on your site. Y’all are pithy and funny and make voting a pleasure—you know, outside getting to exercise my 100-year-old constitutional right.

Thanks, Jenn! It's so nuts that women didn't get the right to vote until 1920.

A reader named Nathaniel who lives out on the Kitsap Peninsula says:

Hello, we are Bremerton residents (Kitsap County, voting district 26) but we work in Seattle. I'm just writing to express my hope the suburbs on the other sides of the ferry lines (Bainbridge Island, Kingston, etc...) could get into your next issue. We love your coverage, and tend to adhere very closely to your election recommendations. Thanks for all of your hard work, and another great primary issue!

It is one of our dreams to be able to make that happen, Nathaniel—coverage of even more races beyond the Seattle area—but we would need a bigger staff. Just for context: We made these primary endorsements happen with fewer editorial staffers than The Stranger has had since the mid-1990s. But get a local techie to donate a million dollars, and it could happen!

A self-identified "old person" named Carole writes:


Dear Stranger writers,

I love to vote. But, being an old person, I actually would prefer to vote in person. I've voted in school gymnasiums, neighbor's garages, libraries, and I love the signing up and the pulling the curtain and my list of candidates right under the grocery list. But now I vote by mail. Pretty boring. Except for The Stranger, you make me laugh for most of the time with your witty and slanderous and smutty but so right-on remarks. You make voting so much fun.

Thank you.

Off to mail the ballot...

That's the spirit, Carole!

Usually when a person of a certain age writes to us about our endorsements, it's to tell us that we are disgusting and irresponsible and will never be taken seriously because we write things like, "We’d rather endorse anal beads dipped in Pop Rocks dipped in COVID than any of those guys"—so the second half of your letter was a pleasant surprise.

We would take issue with "slanderous"—cursing out politicians is not slander—but we will gladly accept "witty" and "smutty." We are so glad we made this fun. That's the whole point.

Everyone else: Be like Carole and vote!!!