Did you vote in the election? | Federal Way letters

Before we give ourselves tennis elbow patting ourselves on the back over our election wins, or break out another box of Kleenex over our losses, let’s look at the votes again.

As of Friday’s vote count, only 34.29 percent of Federal Way’s registered voters even bothered to vote. That is the third poorest showing of 15 South King County cities. The statewide average was 44.99 percent. Only Algona and Pacific showed less interest in their city governance.

Let’s take a big issue. The "yes for strong mayor" vote garnered 51.53 percent of the vote by Friday night; but let’s not be overly encouraged. Let’s not say over half of Federal Way residents voted for a strong mayor. Remember, 69 percent of the people didn’t take the time to fill out and lick a stamp for a ballot delivered directly to their door. Actually, the yes votes to a strong mayor represent only 16 percent of the registered voters. The no votes represent only 15 percent. That’s a whopping 1 percent difference. Think about it: 16 percent of the registered voters decided something for 84 percent of the registered voters. It’s not because the other 15 percent didn’t try to sway things the other way. The point is, 69 percent of the registered voters apparently don’t care one way or the other. (Don’t even get me going on the undetermined number of people who aren’t even registered to vote.)

The United States is fighting wars to help bring the right to vote to distant lands. I wonder why, since it means so little to so many here.

Linda Purlee, Federal Way