The Best Places in Seattle to Drop Your Ballot and Get a Drink
Image: Jane Sherman
Shortly after 8pm on November 8, 2016, a group of friends who had gathered in my basement abandoned the news and headed to the Waterwheel Lounge in Ballard. If anybody there cared that there was an election going on, they sure didn’t show it, and that made it an exceedingly pleasant place to nurse a beer over the next few hours before facing up to reality. As we descend into another election period, the timelessness of an excellent dive bar still provides an ideal antidote to the tension.
On top of Washington’s already free and forgiving mail-in voting, King County makes it exceedingly easy for even last-minute voters to drop their ballot in any of the more than 80 boxes around the region. Some of the locations get clogged with traffic (looking at you, Greenlake), while some are easy to combine with another errand (thank you to the box outside the Seattle Uwajimaya).
But the thing many people need most after voting is the soothing disorientation of an extremely chill bar. So, we at Seattle Met have—kindly, and absolutely not for purely selfish reasons—gathered a list of the best places to grab a drink within a five-minute walk of a ballot box.
Hobnobber Bar
Burien Town Square Park Ballot Box
With the wood-paneled walls of Grandpa’s basement and a wide selection of pull tabs, this spot would be straight out of the Carter era if it weren’t for the thankfully modern quality of its beer selection.
Beveridge Place Pub
Morgan Junction Park Ballot Box
If you finish filling out your ballot and think that the world would be better if you just had a few more options to choose from, drop by this enormous, many-roomed bar. With 37 rotating taps and hundreds more beers by the bottle, you can debate the hop candidates all night.
Central Saloon
King Street Ballot Box
Follow up the election that could make history with a few drinks at a bar that already has. The Central (and its predecessors) played a big role in such moments as rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1889, the Yukon Gold Rush, and, a bit later, the grunge movement. Drink in the past and present with the nostalgic posters from folks who played here (Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana), the slightly seedy feel, and its lovingly surly staff.
Twilight Exit
Garfield Community Center Ballot Box
Whether you come for solace or celebration, the answer is tater tots and endless rounds of Godzilla pinball. As noted in our list of the best neighborhood bars, the Central District’s unofficial living room has everything you could want from a dive bar.
Montana
Seattle Central College Ballot Box
Big Sky Country has some important races happening this year and there’s no better place to make an appropriate toast to the rugged residents of the 41st state than with the signature drinks at the bar named for it. Feeling gingerly? You need a moscow mule. Salty? Have a pickleback.
Streamline Tavern
Metropolitan Market - Queen Anne Ballot Box
The U-shaped bar is a quintessential characteristic of Seattle’s best and oldest taverns, applying a gentle heat to thaw the Seattle Freeze. The Streamline’s demonstrates that often and is a place likely to hold some gruff but sympathetic faces at any given moment.
The College Inn Pub
University of Washington Campus - Schmitz Hall Ballot Box
Term limits are great for politicians but terrible for classic bars. We already voted for the College Inn Pub as one of our 25 best bars in the city, and it might have been our last chance: The current owners plan to close it in June. Raise a glass to say goodbye to a good bar and, hopefully, bad candidates.
Last Frontier Saloon
Fall City Library Ballot Box
No, the name doesn’t refer to what’s about to happen to democracy, depending on how the election goes. It’s just a little gingerbread-house-meets-log-cabin decorated with a dizzying display of old junk and is usually filled with locals suspicious of city folk.
H&H Saloon
Issaquah City Hall Ballot Box
Get your post-voting drink in a bar that’s older than any presidential candidate (current or former). The H&H has been around since Issaquah was more rural town than tony suburb, and it retains the gritty pre-I-90 attitude that makes it the perfect place to grumble into a beer.
