Letter: Two-thirds of Clark County eligible voters didn’t turn in a ballot in the primary election

🎧 Why Did 223,000 Clark County Voters Skip the Primary?

Thomas Schenk has a message for those who chose not to participate in the just finished primary: ‘I hope you’ll reconsider your participation in the coming general election’

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and may not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com

Hey Marie (Gluesenkamp Perez) … you’ve been running ads disparaging Republicans for considering doing away with “mail-in” voting and getting back to “in-person” voting.

Thomas Schenk

The folks you have in your ads paint a pretty picture, saying how convenient and easy it is to just drop their ballot in the mail in order to vote.

Then maybe you can explain, Marie, why 223,000 (give or take a few thousand) of the 360,000 eligible Clark County voters found it too difficult to use the “easy and convenient” “mail-in” ballot to vote in the just finished 2026 primary election.

Granted this is a mid-term election and these elections don’t garner much interest, but after Democrats in Olympia used their one-party rule in the last two legislative sessions to raise taxes and fees on just about everything in the state, you’d think the majority of voters would have reached the “Vote-the-Rascals-out-of-office” stage!

I have gone round and round with family and friends as to why so many voters did not use the “easy and convenient” “mail-in” ballots to vote.

Some say it is the “Jungle Primary” many voters are dissatisfied with and therefore decide not to participate; some say it is “mail-in balloting” itself that people are unhappy with … many thinking it is an easy way to commit fraud in elections and again decline to participate; some comments point towards the distrust of the political system altogether, be it “mail-in” or “in-person” voting; or maybe folks just don’t like the candidates and so, again, decline to participate.

Sometimes it seems as if the electorate behaves like a child at the dinner table, refusing to eat his vegetables, to the point where Mom and Dad stoop to bribing their offspring in order to get him to finish his meal … are we at the point that we have to bribe adult voters in order to have them complete their ballots and drop them in a receptacle? I sure hope not, but this whole issue leaves me wondering … why aren’t people voting???

So … Marie … how can we have a truly representative government in D.C. or Olympia if folks are opting out of voting?

We see how “one-party rule” in Olympia leads to more and more taxation, including waste and fraud related to state government-run programs. Just think what could be done if there was “one-party” rule in D.C. Oh yeah … we’ve experienced that and it doesn’t look very different than what’s going on in Washington state.

Here’s a wake-up call … the next legislative session in Olympia in January, 2027 begins with a budget deficit of approximately one to two billion dollars (not quite sure how it will shake out yet) which the Democrats in charge knew was going to be an issue, because they enacted the budget-busting legislation during the last session, in early 2026.

These “one-party rule” spending increases left a major hole in the upcoming 2027 budget, as noted above, that will have to be plugged by, you guessed it, more tax increases, because we certainly can’t cut spending or dig into the waste fraud and abuse of taxpayer monies, at least the Democrats won’t do it, or don’t want to do it … hey, they’re in charge … unless or until voters balance out the politics in this state, get used to annual spending increases … Democrats never met one they couldn’t vote into law.

Here’s another … Democrats enacted an unconstitutional “Millionaire’s Tax,” where Republicans, in the minority in the House, proposed 79 amendments to try to stop, or at least slow down, the impact of this terrible bill.

Washington State Democrat legislators and their desire to empty the wallets of Washington voters is a microcosm of what goes on in D.C., where the aversion to reducing spending has now put America and Americans in the hole for FORTY TRILLION DOLLARS … FORTY TRILLION DOLLARS and now the argument begins in D.C., because some Republicans are proposing putting guardrails on the bloated spending programs so waste, fraud and abuse are minimized … now proposing … now … my common sense has told me we’ve been sheared like sheep for 40 years … and now we’re going to put guardrails on spending … what a travesty.

Both political parties in D.C. have been irresponsible with taxpayer’s money … both parties.

In Washington state, however, the looting of the state treasury can be laid squarely at the feet of Democrats … who, miraculously, have managed to get control of all phases and offices of state government.

Next will be the super majority of Democrats who will be able to change the State Constitution at will so they can operate without those pesky little Republicans and Conservatives getting in the way of their grandiose plots … I mean plans.

Which brings me back around to you Marie … please tell me again how good “mail-in” voting is for we citizens and we shouldn’t worry so much about the lack of voting, in Clark County anyway, of almost two-thirds of eligible voters.

And for those who chose not to participate in the just finished primary, I hope you’ll reconsider your participation in the coming general election … without your votes to mitigate the imbalance in Olympia, we will soon look like California or, maybe worse, like D.C.

Thomas Schenk
Amboy