Posted on 11/18/2002 9:04:01 PM PST by Diddle E. Squat
New Seattle vote counts released at 3:43 p.m. today show the proposal to build a 14-mile city monorail trailing by three votes. There are 92,435 ballots in favor of a monorail and 92,438 against.
Remaining to be counted are perhaps 1,000 to 2,000 "special ballots," which include those ballots given to people who couldn't reach the right polling place on Election Day or who are legal voters but could not be located in voter logs kept at the polls. There are around 6,000 such ballots in King County as a whole.
Another update is due tomorrow, with official final counts scheduled on Wednesday.
If the measure loses, chairman Tom Weeks of the Elevated Transportation Co., which wrote the plan for $1.75 billion monorail connecting Ballard, downtown, and West Seattle, said that the ETC would likely close. However, a very narrow loss also leaves open the possibility that future monorail activists could try another initiative on a later ballot.
A recount is not required on ballot measures, but either side could pay for one to be done.
To have a recount conducted, someone would need to produce a deposit in the form of a check. The cost is 25 cents a ballot for a hand count, which in this case would be about $46,700. A machine count costs 15 cents per ballot, or $28,000. After the recount is finished, an actual cost would be determined by the King County Canvassing Board to calculate a refund or an additional bill to the requesting party.
To prevail, the monorail measure needs to wind up at 50 percent plus one vote.
"If there is a tie, the issue fails," said Bob Roegner, head of King County elections.
IIRC, monorail costs were projected to average $125 million per mile. Light-rail averages $30-80 million per mile(Seattle has already screwed that up, gerrymandered route that will stop a mile OUTSIDE the airport), buses are far, far, far cheaper.
"Nothing incriminating!"
While this piece of crap idea isn't dying the death it deserves, hopefully it will go away.
FReepers unfamiliar with the Seattle Monorail idea just wouldn't believe how inane the whole concept is. Some of the highlights are - the planners are figuring 65,000 riders a day (Ya. Right) and have budgeted...get this...1,400 parking spots total.
They say this will work because "most of the riders will transfer from buses" coming down the I-5 corrider however, the transfer IS NOT FREE like when you transfer bus to bus.
Furthermore, the Ballard station is way, way, way out of the way. Coming down I-5 and cutting over to Ballard, instead of shooting directly downtown which is another 4 miles or so, would add 20-30 minutes to your commute. And for what? To have to pay more money and wait outside for the privilege of riding the Monorail?
Hell, its only $1.4Billion; with all the whining you'd think we had better uses for the money.
Even the U-Dub kiddies voted against it - their own COL will be going up. Precisely how this differs from demanding a 9-cent-per-gallon tax on gasoline so the farmers in Cheney can pay for that new road in the U District escapes me, but they did vote for the latter...
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