6:30 p.m. update: Local voter turnout 51 percent

By many accounts, this election is boring.

Heady tax issues and a small number of candidates failed to draw a large number of voters to the polls Tuesday; County Auditor Si Stephens predicted a 51 percent voter turnout.

Of 5,843 absentee ballots issued, 3,567 had been returned by midday Tuesday. That means 2,276 absentee ballots are still out there.

“The polls are reflecting that light turnout,” Stephens said. On Lopez Island, where Stephens lives, 75 voters had been to the polls by 11:30 a.m. — four and a half hours after the polls opened.

Stephens speculated about the low voter turnout — in an election in which annual property tax bills were at stake. “People don’t want to vote ‘no’ on the tax levies, or they don’t want to vote ‘yes,’ so they’re not voting at all.” He also pointed to the lack of candidates for office. Countywide, 38 positions were on the ballot; 25 candidates were unopposed.

Stephens said average voter turnout in San Juan County is 71 percent; turnout in 2001, when Initiative 747 was on the ballot, was 62 percent.

Gary Boothman is mayor of Friday Harbor, where three council members and the town treasurer were unopposed in Tuesday’s election. Boothman ran unopposed for reelection in 2001; he agrees with Stephens that a lack of candidates tends to turn voters off.

“I asked one of the poll workers today if there has ever been a time when there were so few candidates,” he said. “There’s no excitement. Some voters are kind of concerned about issues, particularly the tax issues, but that’s not generally something that gets people steamed up.”

Boothman said there are fewer candidates because there’s a lack of “big issues” that candidates can get passionate about. “There’s no hot-button issue,” he said.

He’s optimistic about the 2004 election, when islanders will vote for federal and state offices and two county commission seats.

“The federal elections kick it up. This is the lull before the storm.”