SEATTLE — The monorail proposal in Seattle is still ahead in the latest round of absentee ballots released yesterday, the Seattle Times reported.
The Seattle monorail’s lead dropped from a 52.15 percent approval rate to 51.15 percent. But monorail supporters were undaunted.
Seattle absentee ballots counted yesterday were at the elections office by Monday. Supporters believe that’s significant because they say absentee voters who mailed or delivered their ballots on Election Day voted like people who went to the polls. Those who went to the polls were predominantly pro-monorail.
King County election officials expect to release more tallies today, tomorrow and beginning again Tuesday. Other counties also will release new numbers today. State law requires the election to be certified by Nov. 20.
In King County, about 220,000 of a projected 335,000 absentee ballots still need to be counted, officials said. They projected that about 545,000 people voted at the polls and by mail-in ballot.
Of the Seattle absentee ballots counted yesterday, only 45 percent were pro-monorail — nearly the same rate as early absentees counted on election night, which typically run more conservative than other voters.
Election officials estimated about 60,000 Seattle absentee ballots remain to be counted.
If that figure is right, the monorail proposal would need about 48 percent of them to pass, higher than the absentee yes votes so far. From another perspective, if current trends continue, monorail would lose by about 3,000 votes.
Under the proposal, a new “Seattle Popular Monorail Authority” would oversee construction of a 14-mile line, serving downtown and the western side of the city, for $1.75 billion.
Only 17,446 absentee votes on the monorail were counted yesterday, a fraction of the overall number.
Pro-monorail leaders are counting on later absentees to resemble the in-person ballots, which were 54 percent yes votes.
“It’s completely what I anticipated would be the case,” said Patrick Kylen, chairman of the Rise Above It All pro-monorail campaign. “People who dropped absentees in the mail on Tuesday are probably just getting there. So we won’t start seeing the new absentees that will follow the trend from the polls until Monday or Tuesday.”
Henry Aronson, leader of Citizens Against the Monorail, said it’s too early to say what will happen with the monorail.
“The voters have spoken. We just don’t know what they’ve said,” Aronson said.