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San Juan County No. 1 in state
posted 07/24/01
San Juan County had the highest voter turnout in the state. Eighty seven percent of the 9,730 registered voters cast ballots in the Nov. 7 presidential election. "It's awesome, I'm very proud of our voters," said Elections Supervisor Sandy Gillespie.
Island and Jefferson counties were the next highest with about 83 percent. Statewide the turnout was 73 percent.
In San Juan County 93 percent of voters who used absentee ballots voted. Of those who use the polls, 78 percent voted.
66 percent of county's voters new in last decade
posted 08/01/00
Candidates in San Juan County's upcoming primary and general election might want to pay attention to this statistic: 2 out of 3 of the voters in the San Juan Islands were not registered here prior to 1990.
"Most of the people are new people," said Elections Supervisor Sandy Gillespie. "Most of the county's voters aren't the old island people that we think."
About 38 percent of the county's voters were not registered here before 1995: The county signed up 3,472 of its 9,266 total registered voters in the past five years.
"That's just remarkable to me," Gillespie said.
With such turnover, candidates can't assume that voters know them, Gillespie notes.
Candidates and their supporters should also be aware of the growing number of islanders casting their ballot by mail. In the 1996 general election, 3,238 residents cast absentee ballots. Gillespie is mailing out 4,900 absentee ballots this fall, an increase of 51 percent. That translates to about 60 percent of this fall's ballots being cast absentee, Gillespie estimates.
Since absentee ballots will be mailed Aug. 30, three weeks before the primary, candidates shouldn't wait too long to fire up their campaigns.
Sharon Kivisto
and
Matt Pranger
can be reached:
phone:
360.378.3748
fax:
360.378.9748
by e-mail:
news@sanjuanislander.com
by mail:
San Juan Islander
PO Box 1118
Friday Harbor, WA 98250 USA