There’s last-minute discord in two Whatcom election races split by COVID reaction
Only a few voters were casting their ballots in person at the Whatcom County Courthouse on the final day of Washington state’s vote-by-mail election, and voter turnout lagged behind the record 2020 pace.
Ballots were mailed to registered voters on Oct. 13, and had to be postmarked — not just mailed — by 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 2, or placed in one of the special ballot drop boxes.
Off-year races on Tuesday’s ballot include Whatcom County Council, city councils, the Port of Bellingham and school boards, as well as funding requests for some fire-protection districts and local initiatives.
Key issues include a possible shift in political alignment on the County Council, four ballot initiatives in Bellingham, and school board races in Bellingham and elsewhere where challengers are pushing back against state educational mandates such as masking, the teaching of science-based sex education, and issues of equity, diversity and inclusion.
Discord flared over the weekend in a few races.
Nancy Hill, who is running a write-in campaign for the Whatcom County Council District 2 seat, shared a Facebook post that appeared to imply that she had the support of County Executive Satpal Sidhu.
Sidhu, a Democrat, used Facebook to criticize the Republican-backed Hill’s use of his photo. He has endorsed her opponent, Councilman Todd Donovan.
Hill is on unpaid leave from her job as a nurse at St. Joseph hospital because she refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and has been critical of Whatcom County’s support for vaccination, masking and social distancing to ease the pandemic.
In the race for the County Council’s at-large seat, vandals apparently defaced Kamal Bhachu signs recently with red stickers reading “Beware! He is a Trumpster.”
GOP-backed Bhachu, who is also on unpaid leave from St. Joseph, shares Hill’s views on the pandemic response.
His opponent, Whatcom County Councilman Barry Buchanan, denounced the vandalism in a post on Bhachu’s campaign page on Facebook.
Election day voting
Low early turnout appeared to carry over into the race’s final hours.
On Election Day, voters can go to the courthouse and cast their ballots at voting booths, allowing an in-person voting experience.
But only one person was voting in the single booth Tuesday morning, and there was no line to cast a ballot.
And the only people using the ballot dropbox in the courthouse rotunda told The Bellingham Herald that they worked in the building.
Ballots that are received in the mail Wednesday and afterward will only be accepted if they were postmarked by the election deadline.
Whatcom County had 156,965 registered voters through 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1, but only 43,361 ballots had been returned by then, a turnout rate of 27%, according to the state Secretary of State’s Office.
Statewide, voter turnout was running at 22%.
Whatcom County turnout in the Aug. 3 primary was 34%, but it was 88% for the 2020 general election.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 12:33 PM.
