By AILEEN CHARLESTON, The Mirror

Last Tuesday’s presidential primary and special elections in Federal Way offered a decisive day of politics for many residents.

For others, however, it was just another common February morning.

Janter McCarty, a poll judge at the Christian Faith Center, said there had been a very slow turnout of voters visiting the poll. According to her inspector, the same thing was happening all around the city.

“This has been nothing like the caucus elections,” McCarty said.

Another poll judge at this location, Robert Daniel, explained that despite the low voter presence in the polls, many absentee ballots were submitted.

Faye Givens, a voter at the poll location in Lake Grove Elementary, said she was motivated to vote mainly because she supported the school levy and was hopeful that the district would acquire more funds for the athletics department.

“The city can help students become better individuals, especially those that don’t have any support,” Givens said.

Allan Simmons, poll inspector at Lake Grove Elementary, said few people showed up to vote, but he was hopeful that it would pick up later in the afternoon once people were done with work.

Polls throughout the city opened at 8 a.m. and remained active until 7 p.m.

Particularly for Federal Way, Feb. 19 represented a day where a watershed decision could change the city’s political arrangements.

Voters decided to continue with the current council-manager form of government as well as move forward with the school levy.

In national terms, presidential primaries were merely symbolic for the Democrats since candidate Sen. Barack Obama won the most delegates at the state’s caucus elections on Feb. 9.

On the other hand, the primary mattered more for Republicans with half their delegates still at stake after the caucus. After different controversies that resulted from the state’s caucus elections, Sen. John McCain was officially proclaimed a winner at the primary.

Contact Aileen Charleston: acharleston@fedwaymirror.com