With just days to Election Day, fewer than half of the expected voters in Washington have returned their ballots.
A county-by-county assessment by The Associated Press found that as of Friday, more than 1.3 million ballots had been returned by the state’s 3.6 million registered voters.
Secretary of State Sam Reed has predicted an 83 percent turnout statewide – about 3 million people – so about 43 percent have completed and sent back their ballots.
Counties say a steady stream of ballots is coming in daily.
“It’s running about 1,000 ballots more a day than we would see on average,” said Grays Harbor County Auditor Vern Spatz.
Ballots were sent out Oct. 17, and must be postmarked by Tuesday.
Thirty-seven of the state’s 39 counties are voting entirely by mail. Pierce and King counties still have poll sites, though a majority of voters in those counties already vote by mail.
In the August primary, 95 percent of all votes were submitted by mail.
King County, the state’s most populous county, has 1.1 million voters and is predicting an 85 percent turnout. Some counties are predicting a turnout as high as 90 percent.
The average statewide general election turnout since 1936 is 78.85 percent. The record turnout in modern times was 84.5 percent in 1944.
King County elections officials said they plan to be able to count all the expected 286,800 poll votes on Election Day, as well as 100,000 mail ballots. Following that, they expect to count 90,000 to 100,000 mail votes daily.
State Elections Director Nick Handy cautioned that voters shouldn’t expect to know definitive results on election night because King County’s results will come in slower than the rest of the state.
“Because King is such a dominate player in the governor’s race, we’re concerned that the Tuesday night results will not necessarily be reflected in the final results,” he said. “We want to encourage voters to be patient and understand only about half the ballots will be tabulated on election night and that there will be many more ballots coming in later.”
Washington state Secretary of State: www.secstate.wa.gov
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.