Stefan has covered the intriguing news that perhaps 20% of Snohomish County voters may not be the sharpest tacks in the box. Putting aside debates about the required partisan rather than open-ballot primary, and the debate about all mail voting, this level of voter performance is singularly unimpressive.

For personal reasons, I've had to take some time off of work as of late, and have thus been catching a bit more talk radio during the day . Consequently, today I heard Sam Reed on the air talking about the sampling the Secretary of State's office has done in other counties, including a suburban peer to Snohomish in Clark County. None of the other counties has had over 10% ballot spoilage due to failure, or refusal, to mark partisan preference.

That leads to this logical conclusion: fellow citizens of Snohomish County, we are some kind of stupid. I've examined my primary ballot, which will likely go in the mail tomorrow. Seriously, it's not that tough. Then again, I suppose it's no great loss that those that can't follow basic directions may not have their partisan votes counted (their non-partisan choices will still of course be tabulated). One would think that state law could be changed so that under the current system, people that vote a straight partisan ticket can still have their primary votes counted, regardless of their interest or ability in selecting a party preference. In the meantime, pay attention people!

UPDATE: The Everett Herald reports more on the sweet skills of voters in Snohomish County, compared to other parts of the state, in Wednesday's paper. The article includes this dead in the water suggestion:

Mark Hintz, chairman of the Snohomish County Democratic Party, thinks there is a solution - require people to register as members of a political party.

Good luck with that, Mark.