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What Bellevue's likely voters think about their city — direction, safety, affordability, and the road ahead. Toggle the Seattle Index to see how the Eastside compares.
Now in its sixth year, the VIBe Check — Voter Insights Bellevue — tracks how Bellevue voters feel about their city, capturing both their read on today's most pressing issues and the long-term trends that shape them. The findings inform local policymaking, support the recruitment of public-safety officers, help guide candidates for office, and give the Bellevue Chamber and City Hall a clearer, data-driven understanding of the community they serve. Both the Bellevue VIBe and the Seattle Index are scientifically valid surveys conducted by professional polling firms — EMC Research and Fulcrum Strategies — using rigorous, representative samples of each city's voters.
Bellevue's optimism has rebounded to its highest in five years, while Seattle has shown strong growth in optimism since its 2022 low.
Bellevue feels safe by day and night, the Police Department is the city's strongest brand, and the perception of neighborhood safety has risen every year.
Each year voters name the single most important problem facing Bellevue. Their answers are strikingly diffuse — traffic, crime, and affordability all cluster near the top, with no issue dominating. Seattle's concerns, by contrast, are concentrated in homelessness and crime. The throughline in both cities: affordability is rising while homelessness concern is easing.
The pocketbook is where Bellevue and Seattle sound most alike — both think taxes are too high and both are anxious about money. Two shifts stand out. First, anxiety about personal finances has climbed sharply in Bellevue, from 61% concerned in 2023 to 74% in 2026. Second, Bellevue voters have seen a significant jump in residents who feel taxes are too high for the level of services they receive. And while both cities lean pro-business, Seattle voters think City Hall has far more work to do to improve the climate for business than Bellevue voters do.
For each option, voters were asked whether they'd support or oppose raising taxes to fund it. The verdict is consistent year over year: fixing congested or failing intersections and building more sidewalks remain the most popular transportation investments, while replacing vehicle lanes with bike lanes remains deeply unpopular. Beyond transportation, the 2026 survey also tested a slate of new "big ideas" for the city's future — from the Grand Connection crossing to police drones and AI-assisted city services.
Who actually answered the survey. Bellevue's respondents are a more moderate, more homeowner, more rooted electorate than Seattle's — and that composition helps explain many of the differences between the two cities.
