It’s Election Day in Tri-Cities And No One Seems To Care

Primary elections aren't sexy, even in a Presidential year.  Leading up to one of the more tumultuous elections in modern history the August primary in Washington State was down almost 15% from the 2020 primary.  People just don't get excited for primary elections.

The majority of elected offices have four year terms of service.  Notable exceptions are the U.S. Senate (6 years) and the U.S. House of Representatives (2 years).  This particular election cycle is called an off-year cycle.  For the Tri-Cities the focus is on City Council, School Board, and Port Commissioner races.

Get our free mobile app

You've no doubt heard that these elections impact your life more than the Presidential election as your City Council members vote on your local tax rate and approve the City operating budget among other responsibilities.  School Board Directors do the same for your local school district.

With that said, and today being election day, returns in Benton & Franklin Counties as of this morning (August 5th) are abysmal.  Benton County has a return rate of just over 14% (15,562 out of 110,453 possible ballots) while Franklin sits at 27.24% (334 out of 1,230 possible ballots).  To be fair, Franklin County only has one election in this primary and that is for Mayor Connell which explains the low amount of eligible voters.

What's Benton County's Excuse?

That's a good question as Benton County voters have primary elections in multiple City Council races in Kennewick and Richland, as well as one in Prosser.  There is also a primary for one of the Kennewick School Board races.  Yet at the moment 86% of voters are good with the remaining 14% percent determining the two people they will vote for in November.

Voters have until 8 pm tonight to take their ballot to a drop box if they want to participate.  Incumbents already have an advantage heading into an election.  When there is excitement around a particular contest (like we saw post-COVID) you have a better chance of unseating an incumbent.  2021 saw multiple incumbents in Benton County lose as the voter turnout was near 40% in the general and included roughly 10,000 more voters than 2017.

This low of a turnout usually means the most engaged and active voters are participating and that can make it even tougher to unseat an incumbent, even an unpopular one.