Costa Aristides, 18, who is voting for the first time this year, said he wasn’t super-enthusiastic about Kamala Harris, but was still hopeful she can do good things for the country.
“I’m very concerned about reproductive rights for women,” Aristides said near the U District drop box. “Trans rights as well. That’s something that I deem very important, so that’s why I personally voted blue.”
Costa Aristides, 18, who is voting for the first time this year, said his top issues this election are reproductive rights and trans rights. (Nate Sanford for Cascade PBS)
Stephanie Sansbury, 31, who recently moved to Washington from Pennsylvania, said her most important issues in this year’s election are LGBTQ+ rights and women’s bodily autonomy.
“I’m feeling cautiously optimistic,” Sansbury said. “I’m trying to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”
She recently changed her voter registration from Pennsylvania to Washington, but somewhat regrets it.
“I feel like I could have done a little more for the cause there,” Sansbury said.
Mandi Smith, 39, who lives in Kirkland, and Anthony Dell, 42, who lives in Snohomish, and were dropping their ballots at a Capitol Hill drop box, both said their top issue was abortion.
Smith knows someone who had to fly out of state lines for an abortion to save their life because they live in Texas. “The baby was not going to make it,” she said.
“People that can afford to travel are able to. So it’s like those laws and rules seem to only … impact poor people,” Dell said. Smith wants Harris to put Roe back in place.
“Being pregnant shouldn’t be a death sentence. It doesn’t need to be. It hasn’t been for decades,” Dell said.
A line of people waiting to vote at the King County voting center in Renton on Tuesday, Nov. 5. (Jadenne Radoc Cabahug for Cascade PBS)
Marc Frenkel, 61, from Renton, wasn’t that excited about the presidential election when he dropped off his ballot at the King County Elections Center in Renton. Frenkel said he wrote his own name in for president because he didn’t consider either major party candidate to be qualified for the job.
On his to-do list for the next president: international policy, border protection and the economy.
“There’s a number of things that the next president needs to address, but it’s not just the president, it’s a congressional issue,” Frenkel said. “Anyone that thinks the president is the final deciding factor doesn’t understand how politics works."
Some voters in Yakima were equally disenchanted with their choices for president.
Julie Espinoza, 30, was voting for the first time when she dropped off her ballot at the Yakima County Courthouse. She voted for former President Donald Trump as she did not like how the country ran under President Joseph Biden. “I feel a lot of money is spent elsewhere and not here.”
Harmony Barajas, a 23-year-old student, also voting for the first time, said she felt corruption on both sides has been normalized. She voted for Donald Trump because she felt he was direct. She said she wouldn’t vote based on a party. “You have to vote for whatever is best for yourself.”
Maria Arceo Gardner, 42, of Capitol Hill, was excited about her choice of Harris for president. She was inspired to vote for a person who is Black and Asian and a child of immigrants like her.
“It just goes to show that the American dream is attainable and if you are an immigrant you can do whatever you want to do, like be President of the United States.”
Her biggest issue is Trump not being president again, but she also wants Harris to do something about Palestine.
“I’m tired of having like, digital access to a genocide and still keep hearing about billions and billions of dollars being sent in my name to go commit genocide.”
Pamela Fuerst, 68, of Yakima looks for “pro-life” candidates on her ballot, but says she is also concerned about what the next president will do about the ongoing wars abroad. (Mai Hoang for Cascade PBS)
Pamela Fuerst, 68, of Yakima, also used abortion as a litmus test for candidates because she was looking for “pro-life” candidates who didn’t support abortion. She said other top issues were the economy and how the president would address the ongoing wars abroad.
Election security
The ballot box fires in Oregon and southwest Washington a week ago had some voters worrying about election security.
Peter Deming, 65, a lawyer from Kent, said he voted as soon as he received his ballot, but he stopped by a ballot box in Renton on Tuesday because he wanted to see if they had extra security after the fires.
He was most excited to vote for president and governor and is concerned about housing and homelessness, as well as immigration. Deming said he was an “anyone but Trump” voter and made some predictions about the outcome as well.
"I think we’re going to be surprised, I think it’s going to be a landslide for Kamala,” Deming said.
As she dropped off her ballot at the U District dropbox on Election Day, Alysandra Jameson, 56, said she was anxious but hopeful.
“I’m pretty nervous about it, honestly, but I have a lot of faith in Kamala,” Jameson said. “If Kamala wins — when Kamala wins — we have to get to work right away as a nation.”
Jameson has been a voter her entire life, but said the past decade or so has felt especially stressful.
Jameson said she was concerned about the recent ballot burning incidents in Portland and Vancouver, Washington, but still fairly confident that her vote would be counted.
“I’m always worried, but I have faith in our poll watchers,” Jameson said, pointing to the two King County elections officials standing by the drop box to help answer people’s questions. “No matter what party they’re with.”
Jameson said she hopes to see Harris tackle judicial reform, gerrymandering and campaign finance reform.
“We need to take a really good hard look at all the dark money that’s come into politics,” she said.
Jameson also wants to see a sense of “statesmanship” restored to the Oval Office.
“When you watch Barack Obama speak, you realize how much we miss that,” Jameson said. “Our leaders and lawmakers should give us a sense that there’s a certain practice being followed, some tradition.”
Jameson, a Navy veteran who used to work on a submarine, said reproductive access is a big priority. As a trans person, she is also focused on protecting LGBTQ+ rights.
Jameson said her mom recently asked her if she would go back in the closet if Trump wins. She told her no.
“I’d rather fight the world to be myself than fight myself to please the world,” she said.
Deena Loveland, an older woman who lives in Sammamish, was volunteering Tuesday as a ballot box watcher on Beacon Hill outside the Beacon Hill branch of the Seattle Public Library. She has offered to volunteer for several of the past elections, but this is the first time she’s been called in to help.
She was doing her ballot box watching from a little after 11 this morning all the way until the polls close at 8 p.m. tonight. In addition to her there as a ballot box watcher – answering questions, helping people replace envelopes, handing out “I Voted” stickers – two volunteers were directing traffic. Loveland said she was impressed by the number of people coming out to vote. At 4 p.m., a security guard will join them as an additional safety measure.
On why she wanted to volunteer, Loveland said, “You have to do something. If we all sit back and do nothing, nothing happens. With all the potential fraud, it’s good to have people out here for visibility.”
Cascade PBS reporters Josh Cohen, Mai Hoang, Lizz Giordano, Jadenne Radoc Cabahug, Brandon Block and Nate Sanford contributed to this story.
