SPOKANE -- It's east versus west as local voters are upset a few Western Washington counties keep deciding key issues like Tuesday night's Referendum 71. Some Eastern Washington voters are frustrated, once again, claiming the west side holds all the voting power.
Referendum 71, the measure that would uphold domestic partnerships in Washington State, appears to have passed. But in most counties in the state, R-71 failed. It's happened before and people living in the Inland Northwest don't like it.
When you're talking about politics or to politicians, it doesn't take long for the gap to come up. Who's got the power? The west side or the east? Your vote counts but it may just be canceled out.
Washington is split into two parts: the more conservative east side and the more liberal west side. But the west side has more people. That means the west side has the voting power to swing a lot of issues. Supporters carried King and Snohomish counties. It passed by 20-thousand votes.
In 2007, seven counties passed an amendment to change how school districts could ask for tax money. The rest of the counties rejected it, but the measure passed anyway. Then there is the presidential election. About half the counties voted for Barack Obama, the other half didn't. But Obama carried the state by seven percent. It's all about population.
But that doesn't mean it's impossible to get anything done for the east side of the state. But when it comes to a popular vote, there's just more of them.
whawha said on November 5, 2009 at 10:58 AM
In the 80's there was a plan to take the East Side of Washington, The Idaho Panhandle and part of Western Montana and make a state "Columbia" and Spokane was going to be the Capitol. I think they should revisit that idea, anything to get away from the liberal idiots on the West side of WA.
technogeek said on November 5, 2009 at 7:46 PM
It sure doesn't seem like the votes on this side of the state count. I wouldn't be opposed to splitting the state right down the cascades. People say that would reduce the funding of projects on the east side, but since the legislature insists on spending most of the money over there anyway, what difference would it make?
brucie said on November 5, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Yay!
brucie said on November 6, 2009 at 10:50 AM
The results were updated again about 1/2 hour ago (Friday morning) and it's still running 52% in favor. http://vote.wa.gov/Elections/WEI/Results.aspx?RaceTypeCode=M&JurisdictionTypeID=-2&ElectionID=32&ViewMode=Results Yay!