How Election Night felt on UW’s campus

Washington voters had until 8 p.m. Tuesday to return their ballots in an election featuring three statewide initiatives and five of the nine state Supreme Court seats. 

But it was the ballot initiatives – including measures to ban trans girls from sports, to repeal the state income tax on millionaires, and to change parental rights in schools – that drove some people to cast their votes just before the deadline. 

By 6:30 p.m., the University of Washington’s voting center was packed with last-minute voters. Lines stretched down multiple floors. 

Nea Fox, 29, who has lived in Roosevelt since 2024, voted against Initiative 638, which is what originally led her to the voting center. The measure and various candidate races were at the top of her mind as she slipped her ballot into the drop box.

“I think it’s absolutely horrible,” Fox said.  

The now passed initiative bars transgender girls from competing in girls’ K-12 sports. Students who want to play on girls’ teams will now need a health care provider to verify their sex assigned at birth to participate.

Some Gen Z adults said they were voting for the first time, or more consistently than before, because of what they were seeing on social media.

“A lot of pressure against leftist icons, like Hasan Piker and Zohran Mamdani, have made me more adamant to vote,” Fox said. “Currently, there is a genocide and I feel complicit in it. [Voting] clears my conscience of that.”

Patrick Jean-Philippe, who recently moved to Seattle from Florida, said people should use their right to vote, especially in a state as accessible as Washington. Jean-Philippe said he moved here because he saw legislation that aligned more closely with his personal values.

“Washington is one of the easiest states to vote in,” Jean-Philippe said. “The fact I moved here a month ago, and my first bill was enough for me to vote here, that’s not the case in many states.”

Jean-Philippe, a first-generation Haitian-American, said people should vote, since not everyone gets the same freedom and liberty as those living in America do. 

“Voting is the only means any of us have to influence any of these huge circumstances that feel out of our control,” Jean-Philippe said. “Some people don’t think it’s much, and to be honest, I don’t think it’s enough, but voting is all you got.”

Although many Washingtonians believed the state would stay blue, even on local initiatives and propositions, they still cast their votes to show support. 

“I believe in the power of local elections,” Fox said. “If everyone thought that your vote didn’t matter, nothing would change.”

Throughout early voting to Election Day, many Gen Zers dropped off their first-ever ballot. Alexandra Padua, 18, a first-year University of Washington student, walked out of the voting center with an ‘I voted’ sticker displayed clearly on her chest. Padua said voting is both difficult and rewarding. 

“[Voting] was very new for me and honestly very hard,” Padua said. “I mean, it determines your rights and it’s a decision that you’re able to contribute to.” 

Many voters praised the state’s accessibility, citing mail-in voting and a plethora of voting centers across the state. Some areas also have accessible voting units, or AVUs, which are wheelchair accessible and give voters with disabilities privacy. 

Despite this, some Washingtonians also feel that the state could do a better job informing the public about what is on the ballot, and when midterm elections take place. 

“I do wish I was more aware of [midterm elections],” Padua said. “But I did my research and I am happy with what I selected.”

Even when voting feels redundant or useless, Padua said, it allows her to decide who governs the country and state and what gets enacted into law. 

“It feels great to vote,” Padua said. “It’s a right that you have to take advantage of.”

Summer Brown is a reporter for University of Washington’s Community News Lab, a project of the UW Journalism and Public Interest program.