On the way to school yesterday, I drove out of my neighborhood and headed towards I-90 from Snoqualmie.

As I pulled out of my intersection, I was greeted by no fewer than three of our local mayoral candidates (check out the interview our neighborhood “podcaster” had with them: http://www.joegivens.com/SnoqualmiePodcast.htm), all holding their bright signs and waving to every car that passed along, including mine.

Feeling a surge of civic pride, I honked my horn in all three of their general directions, and was rewarded with three very enthusiastic return waves. All three gentlemen were standing at different corners of the intersection, but they all seemed to get along quite well with one other. As I drove on, I saw the three talking (or rather, shouting) across the street in a congenial manner.

Later that afternoon, after a bit of guesswork, I found my polling place literally around the corner from my house. It was quiet: I was told by several affable poll workers that I was the 14th voter to stop by that day, and was ushered to my polling booth with no problems. I observed (and was observed by) a clearly alert election observer. The process was smooth and everything looked as professional as possible. Talking to a few of my friends and classmates, they observed the same thing at their various polling locations around the county.

After dinner, I drove my mom to the polling place and passed Matt Larson, one of the three candidates, on the same corner I had seen him that morning. He had a huge crew of family and friends out in the twilight, hopping up and down with less than an hour to go. As it turns out, he did pretty well for himself and garnering the most votes of the day. He’ll be facing another qualified fellow, Michael Lewandowski, come November.

Having all three men come from my neighborhood put a right neighborly spin on the whole process, and the nonpartisan race has been handled in a low-key and classy manner. Let’s hope that the friendly attitude of one small town’s election can spread to other areas around the Eastside.

Was it a silky smooth election in your backyard? Let us know