Tuesday is the primary election in Washington. Since I've been asked, here's how I voted.
For Seattle-area races, take a look at the Municipal League's ratings. I considered the League ratings (I participated in the final ratings), media reports and my own views:
Seattle City Council -- I'm looking for new ideas and signs that a candidate can actually build consensus and take action. Challenger Joe Szwaja in Position 1 and Venus Velazquez for the open seat in Position 3 seem most promising.
Port of Seattle -- The Port needs more stringent oversight, which led me to pick Gael Tarleton (who has a financial-management background) for Position 2 over incumbent Bob Edwards. In Position 5, incumbent Alec Fisken has been a tenacious agitator for transparency so deserves another term.
King County Prop. 1 and Prop. 2 -- I'm a huge fan of parks and zoos, which would benefit from these property tax measures. But I don't support the mechanism behind them. Parks and zoos aren't the lowest priority of county residents so shouldn't be the also-ran issues that the government puts on the ballot almost as afterthought. I don't want to be asked about funding every government priority -- we elect representatives to weigh priorities and to make the case for more overall funding if that's required. These levies continue a bad habit.