"Cooper, this is no time for caution!"

With a week to go, the Primary return numbers are surprising the Whatcom County Elections Office:

Primary Ballots Returned (5:49 PM 5/17/2016) = 29,609

This strong an early return for a primary, even an all county primary, is huge. Keep in mind we barely eclipsed 60K in last November's GE!  The registration counts below the break show us why so many are voting. The registration rolls in Whatcom County are now clearly bloated with youth and Berners.

If you have ever thought about running for office or PCO, now is the time and this is filing week!  Notice in the registration numbers below that those born after 1966 in Whatcom County now eclipse those born before by (66121 - 64694) = 1,427. Notice that those born after 1980 now eclipse those born before 1950 by a stunning (38503 - 27968) = 10,535. Although we are very youth heavy in Whatcom County (thank you WWU, WWC, BTC), these proportions are now not unusual.  See similar numbers for all  of WA far below.

The future is here. Time for the DNC, local Democrats, and the rest of the world to wake up and smell the Millennials and the Berners. Youth and those of us still young enough not to be suffering cognitive degeneration will inherit what remains of the Earth. As my four year old likes to say: "There is no time to lose!" Perhaps I can also quote from the docking scene in "Interstellar": "Cooper, this is no time for caution!"

# Whatcom County 05.16.2016
# "A" == Active Registrants
# 05.16.2016 voterdb (vdb)

# All Active (a record)
vdb[StatusCode == "A",.N]
[1] 132,612

# Born after 1966...probably also a record.
vdb[StatusCode == "A" & year(mdy(BirthDate)) > 1966,.N,]
[1] 66,121

# Born before 1966
vdb[StatusCode == "A" & year(mdy(BirthDate)) < 1966,.N,]
[1] 64,694

# Born after 1980 
vdb[StatusCode == "A" & year(mdy(BirthDate)) > 1980,.N,]
[1] 38,503

# Born before 1950 
vdb[StatusCode == "A" & year(mdy(BirthDate)) < 1950,.N,]
[1] 27,968


# WA State 05.01.2016
# "A" == Active Registrants
# 05.01.2016 voterdb (t1)

# All Active (a record)
t1[StatusCode == "A",.N]
[1] 4,080,015

# Born after 1966...probably also a record.
t1[StatusCode == "A" & year(mdy(Birthdate)) > 1966,.N,]
[1] 1,988,563

# Born before 1966
t1[StatusCode == "A" & year(mdy(Birthdate)) < 1966,.N,]
[1] 2,025,632

# Born after 1980 
t1[StatusCode == "A" & year(mdy(Birthdate)) > 1980,.N,]
[1] 1,066,871

# Born before 1950 
t1[StatusCode == "A" & year(mdy(Birthdate)) < 1950,.N,]
[1] 819,769