Last-minute voters stream to Pierce County election center as part of record turnout
Whatever their political beliefs may be, Pierce County voters turned out in record numbers for Tuesday’s general election.
The News Tribune caught up with voters waiting in the long drive-thru lines at the Pierce County Auditor’s Office, many of whom were planning to vote for the first time.
Lakewood resident Montek Smith, 24, said he’s never been politically engaged but this year felt important.
“With COVID and Black Lives Matter, I feel it’s more important to know where we’re headed,” Smith said. “I’m not really liberal or conservative, but I’m voting for Donald Trump.”
Leroy Petry, 41, is a retired military service member from Steilacoom and says he’s voting for Trump because of the president’s support for the military and veterans.
“Trump genuinely cares about our country,” Petry said. “He’s not perfect, but we’re not electing a pope or a saint. It’s based on leadership.”
Although Washington voters have been able to turn in their ballots since Oct. 16, some felt it was safer to vote in-person on Election Day.
Tacoma resident Justin Lampkin, 35, said he thinks Trump will “do what he can to dispute mail-in voting.”
“That’s why I’m here today, to make sure my vote counts,” Lampkin said. “I think folks have had enough, and as a country we’re too far divided even on issues where we should have common ground.”
Lampkin said while the election is important, he disagreed with the idea that this election is the most important of our time, as people on both sides of the aisle have claimed.
“I think 2016 was the most important election of our lifetimes,” Lampkin said. “Calling this one the most important is just a reaction to the consequences of the outcome of 2016.”
Monica Richardson, 34, said she knows the election is important but nearly didn’t vote. She said her mother changed her mind about voting at the last minute.
“We need better leadership in office,” Richardson said. She added that she was disappointed that Trump dismantled a pandemic response team in 2018. “They were put in place to handle situations like the one we’re in now.”
Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson said voters in the county are breaking every record.
“As of this morning we had 71% of the ballots we’re expecting,” Anderson said. “We’re breaking every record in the book: most registered voters and most ballots returned.”
Anderson said people seem more engaged this year than ever before.
“Whether that’s because of COVID or social justice or their feelings about federal and state government, people are talking to each other,” Anderson said. “But this is the result we’d like to see in every election.”
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 2:31 PM.
