East Link vote didn’t get an approval in Bellevue

Published 4:24 pm Saturday, October 24, 2009

Listening to the comments by Bellevue City Council candidates at the Oct. 6 candidates forum it seemed to me that it would be helpful to Bellevue citizens if they could be a bit more accurate in their assertions about voter’s “approval” of Sound Transit’s East Link.

The approval votes were not nearly as compelling as asserted by Dr. Davidson, when he stated that ‘we had a 60 percent vote. …’ Indeed, voters in Pierce County voted ‘no’ on Proposition 1, and only 42 percent of the registered voters in the three counties voted to approve Proposition 1.

In the 41st and 48th legislative districts (which include most of Bellevue), only 42.3 percent and 43.4 percent of the registered voters approved Proposition 1. Clearly, the voting results show that there was most certainly not a compelling/overwhelming voter appetite for Proposition 1, which included, of course, the proposed East Link expansion.

I urge the candidates to consider the actual voting results when they develop Bellevue policies and plans regarding the East Link expansion.

David F. Plummer, Bellevue