So you think it's a coincidence that we vote right after Halloween? That the night when the line is thinnest between the living and the dead comes right at the climax of campaign season? That the Day of the Dead sees fundraisers held all over the city?

Well, if you aren't creeped out yet, just keep reading. There will be something in this year's slate of candidates and initiatives to truly horrify you. And, as always, ETS! is here to help. Just remember: we warned you.

So here are our highly informed (usually) picks, with the standard caveats: This is one opinion. If you're going to do something dangerous like voting, do your homework and consult multiple sources ­ don't just take our word for it. And voting by itself is never enough: it's activism that truly changes things.

Elected Office

City of Seattle Mayor: Greg Nickels has raised over a half million dollars for his re-election; his opponent, Al Runte, has raised $8,000. You have to ask yourself why Nickels wanted all that money with no viable opponent, and what he's promised to whom in order to get it. Nickels will win, easily, but he needs to hear that not all Seattleites are pleased with a city run by and for Paul Allen. Runte is a fine (if inexperienced) candidate, but another option is to not vote in this race; the number of signatures required to get a citywide initiative on the ballot is based on the number of votes cast in the mayor's race, so a depressed mayoral turnout means it will be easier in coming years to qualify initiatives for the ballot. Al Runte, or skip it.

Seattle City Attorney: Tom Carr is running unopposed for re-election. Skip it.

Seattle City Council Pos. 2: Richard Conlin is maddeningly inconsistent insofar as his progressive roots are concerned, but he is one of the few council members who actually listens to his constituents, and he has been one of the few willing to consistently stand up to our Bullyboy Mayor. To make things easier, he's being challenged by Paige Miller, who is using corrupt business cronies from her Port of Seattle Commissioner terms to fund a downtown establishment bid to take Conlin out. Conlin can be good; Miller cannot. Richard Conlin.

Seattle City Council Pos. 4 Challenger Casey Corr is something of a cipher: a former Nickels staffer, but before that a reasonably good investigative journalist and columnist at our daily papers. He's taking on the worst of our city councilpeople, Jan Drago, a clueless autovote for downtown business interests. Drago is so bad that it's worth taking a chance on Corr to get rid of her. Casey Corr.

Seattle City Council Pos. 6 Nick Licata is simply the best councilperson Seattle has had in a generation. He's faced by a free market advocate, Paul Bascomb, who will be lucky to get 10 percent. Nick Licata.

Seattle City Council Pos. 8: This vexing race pits incumbent Richard McIver against County Councilman Dwight Pelz. McIver is the city council's only African-American, but he's also been an inert, largely useless presence since first being appointed to council eight years ago; he does not deserve re-election. Alas, Pelz is flawed, too: he's been a solid liberal voice on county council for years, but he's close friends with Nickels, an enthusiastic backer of all the various South Lake Union giveaways to Paul Allen, and he's largely phoned in a curiously listless campaign. He doesn't deserve the seat, either. Skip it.

Seattle School District No. 1, Director Incumbent Mary Bass was calling bullshit on Joseph Olchefske's math-deficient reign long before it was cool. She deserves a second term, but the entrenched interests who resent a reform-dominated school board have targeted her seat with a strong challenge from Jane Fellner. Mary Bass. Twice.

Seattle School District No. 1, Director Former city councilperson Cheryl Chow has been a disaster everywhere she's been, but her prominent name (her mother is International District icon Ruby Chow) keeps giving her second chances at the limelight. Now she wants on the school board. Yuck. Her opponent, Linda Thompson-Black, would be far better. Linda Thompson-Black.

Seattle Popular Monorail Authority, Board Member, Pos. 1 Incumbent Cindi Laws blamed the downtown Jews for the monorail's problems; that alone should disqualify her from further public office. So should the performance of the monorail board itself for the past three years. But Laws wants the monorail to somehow go on; challenger Beth Goldberg does not. See elsewhere in this issue for another view, but my sentiment is that the monorail project is now fatally flawed and deserves a mercy killing. Beth Goldberg.

Seattle Popular Monorail Authority, Board Member, Pos. 9 Same race, without the anti-Semitism; incumbent Cleve Stockmeyer is a Monorail True Believer, challenger Jim Nobles is not. Jim Nobles.

King County Executive: The irony and tragedy of Ron Sims' political career is that he keeps running (and losing) races for higher office by posing as far more liberal than his performance as King County Executive would indicate. Now he wants a third term as Exec, and he's being challenged by David Irons, the same Eastside Robo-Republican that the Party designated a few years ago to take out environmentalist gadfly Brian Derdowski in a King County Council primary. It's a truly unappealing choice. Fortunately, there's a third option -- Gentry Lange, the Green Party candidate. Owing to the Green Party's dysfunction, Lange's campaign has been barely visible, which is a shame: he's smart, articulate, and a way better choice than Sims. Gentry Lange.

King County Sheriff: The choice is between appointed incumbent Sue Rahr, plagued by scandals both on her own watch and as #2 cop under Dave Reichert, and Greg Schmidt, a Seattle cop with a reputation as a bully and a domestic violence accusation in his past. Same as in the primary, the best choice is to skip it.

King County Council District 1 Maverick Democrat Bob Ferguson barely ousted fellow incumbent Carolyn Edmonds in this redrawn, heavily Democratic district; now he faces a nameless Republican (actually, his name is Steven Pyeatt). Bob Ferguson.

King County Council District 2 Member-for-life Larry Gossett faces token opposition from a Republican and Libertarian. Gossett is one of the good guys. Larry Gossett.

King County Council District 4 Larry Phillips, another Member-for-life Democrat, faces a challenge from "independent" Ed Pottharst. Phillips is not one of the good guys; he's an inert force of the type that plagues Seattle Democrats who can always get elected without breaking a sweat. Alas, Pottharst doesn't seem to be a credible alternative. Skip it.

King County Council District 8 Dow Constantine is Larry Phillips without the seniority. He's also got an "independent" challenger, John Potter, who seems mostly to oppose taxes of any and all kinds. Skip it.

Court of Appeals Judge, Division 1, District 1, Position 2. Susan Randolph Agid is unopposed. This is a joke, right?

Port of Seattle Commissioner, Pos. 1 Environmentalist and reformer Lawrence Malloy faces a strong, well-financed challenge from the corrupt Old Boy network in the form of businessman John Creighton. Malloy has been a voice of sanity in the county's most corrupt government agency. We need him back. Lawrence Malloy.

Port of Seattle Commissioner, Pos. 3 Lloyd Hara and Richard Berkowitz face off for this open seat. Both have some good qualities. Berkowitz, a working waterfront guy, has some appeal -- but the last labor commissioner at the Port, Jack Block, was a 24-year disaster, so working class credentials guarantee nothing. Hara is smart, he wants reform, and he is (by a nose) the better candidate. Lloyd Hara.

Port of Seattle Commissioner, Pos. 4 Incumbent-for-life Pat Davis represents everything that is arrogant, corrupt, and unaccountable about the Port of Seattle. She faces a strong and well-qualified challenge from Jack Jolley. Jolley would be doing us all an enormous favor if he can take Davis out. Jack Jolley.

Ballot Measures

City of Seattle Advisory Measure No. 1. This completely meaningless advisory measure would advise the mayor and city council that every person in the US should have an equal right to quality health care, and that Congress should implement that right. Well, sure, this is a fine sentiment -- who's going to vote against "quality health care -- but this sort of feel-good

drivel can mean anything to anyone. And Congress, in its present form, could not care less what a bunch of Seattle Democrats think. It's a complete waste of time -- but voting "no" sends the wrong message, so, reluctantly, Yes

King County Proposition No. 1. This Veterans and Human Services Levy deposits tax money in two kitties: one for veterans, one for low-income residents. Why on earth local government should have to underwrite the costs of our country's militarism fetish is beyond me -- that should be the fed's responsibility -- but the low income help is desperately needed. Yes.

Seattle Popular Monorail Authority Prop. No. 1. For the fifth time, we vote on the monorail, but this is the first time we have a real route and real financial numbers attached to it. Sort of -- the monorail board had to scramble to come up with cost estimates for its last-minute, shortened proposal for a line from Interbay (huh?) to West Seattle. That sort of sloppiness exemplifies why the monorail is in such trouble; for three years the leadership and board has been playing Fantasy Transit with taxpayer money, and when the time came to actually pay the bills, the belated discovery was made that this is too expensive a project for a municipality to fund by itself. It needs federal funds -- and those would already be impossible to come by, but with a record of mismanagement and without the city's backing, we're now back in fantasyland again. It's a shame a good idea has come to this. Some day, the local movers and shakers who attach themselves leechlike to major transit projects have got to learn how to run these projects without destroying them. "Yes" means build the monorail and damn the costs; "no" means it won't be built. No.

Seattle Popular Monorail Authority Prop. No. 2. Whether the monorail is built or not, important decisions remain for the board, and perhaps if it hadn't consisted largely of appointed cronies, toadies, and True Believers, the board to date wouldn't have been so bad. This changes the formula so that five of nine, rather than the current two of nine board members, are elected. Yes.

I-900. Tim Eyman's latest brainchild would give a lot of money ($17 million a year) to the state auditor's office to conduct performance audits of local, county, and state agencies. There is some concern that a politicized State Auditor could use this new power to harass programs and agencies he or she doesn't like, but in general this is a good idea -- unlike most of Eyman's -- and a long overdue opportunity to not only judge whether taxpayer money is being spent honestly, but whether it's being spent wisely. Yes.

I-901. This anti-smoking initiative will probably pass by a landslide, cuz everyone knows smoking is bad, right? Trouble is, it's a bad idea, particularly a provision that bars smoking within 25 feet of a doorway, window, or vent -- virtually banning smoking on a sidewalk, for example. It's virtually unenforceable, but in practice what it probably does is give cops another excuse to harass the homeless -- when they smoke. This measure goes much farther than most other states indoor smoking bans and turns what most people would consider a mild annoyance -- having to get a whiff of cigarette smoke -- into yet another law intended to protect us from ourselves. Come back with a ban on indoor smoking that doesn't have the 25-foot rule. No.

I-912. The anti-tax crowd is at it again, hoping to deny a basic government function because they want Somebody Else to pay for it. In this case, we're faced with an initiative to repeal the 9.5 cent per gallon increase in the gas tax the state legislature used as partial funding to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct and Evergreen Point Floating Bridge and fund a mittful of road and transit projects across the state. Building and maintaining roads and transit is something government needs to do, and this was a rare incident where political gridlock was broken and a solution was brokered. If I-912 passes, it will be years before the state dares again to tackle this vexing problem -- and the pricier gas helps keep more cars off the road, too. No.

I-330. This is a naked attempt by the AMA to exempt doctors (and, oh yeah, anyone else who does anything professional remotely connected to health) from malpractice lawsuits. It's signing away your rights to benefit a very wealthy special interest group. No.

I-336. This is a measure that essentially competes with I-330, tackling the issue of medical malpractice by (among other things) creating a "Three Strikes" rule for doctors whose negligence has caused serious injury or death three times, allowing the public to find out when doctors are found negligent, and creating a supplemental pool of money for malpractice insurance. The worst thing the "no" lobby can find to say about this initiative is that it was written by trial lawyers -- a red herring argument that's a sure sign someone's free ride is being threatened. Yes.

Senate Joint Resolution 8207. An arcane measure that would allow a judge from either a District or Municipal Court to be appointed to one of the 11 seats on the Commission on Judicial Conduct, rather than the seat currently being reserved for a District Court judge. Why this has to go to the voters is beyond me. What the hell. Yes.