How would you like to go to a Seattle Mariners baseball game, have a screen pulled down between the fans and the field, and wait for the score announced only when it’s all over?

Obviously, the game would lose all of its interest and excitement, and the only ones attending would be those who enjoy paying $7 for a plastic bottle of beer. Watching the game progress and the score change is what it’s all about, and if we’re treated to a thrilling finish, so much the better.

Elections in Washington are a lot like that baseball game we can’t see. It wasn’t a problem when everyone voted on election day and they counted the ballots that night, because we knew the final score almost instantly. But ever since we’ve been cursed by all-mail elections, the voting game is excruciatingly tedious.

Ballots are sent out three weeks before the elections. Campaigns are timed to climax the week the ballots are mailed. Many people vote early. Campaigns limp along to the finish line, not knowing if it matters any more. Some people forget to vote, or toss their ballots out with the junk mail. There is tedium, not drama, in what should be the most exciting time in a democracy. There’s not even drama when the votes are counted, because it literally takes days to get a final tally from the mail-in ballots.

Wouldn’t it be better to count the ballots as we go along, and not keep the electorate in the dark?

For example, we should know how the voting is going for Oak Harbor School District’s Levy 1 and Levy 2. People have been voting for two weeks, but nobody knows where we stand. Imagine how interesting it would be if the auditor announced the vote totals at the end of every day. Supporters, down by a few votes, would furiously try to get out the vote. Opponents, slightly ahead, would work just as hard to have their side win. People who haven’t voted would suddenly be important; people who generally don’t vote would want to vote, because they know their vote would make a difference.

The media would go nuts, reporting the daily tallies. Interest in the process would skyrocket. Candidates would keep fighting to the end, or if the early results are obvious, quit wasting their money.

There aren’t any bills in the Legislature to make our democracy interesting by requiring that mail-in ballot counts be announced each day, but somebody should introduce one.

We could have exciting, meaningful, elections, with the electorate, candidates and media fully involved throughout the process, at little if any additional cost. Are you listening, Olympia?