Less than a week away, WA voter turnout lower than last midterm

With less than one week to go until Election Day, the Washington Secretary of State has released some statistics about voter turnout and who has returned their ballot already.

As one of eight states that conduct all elections with the option to vote in the mail, Washington is already starting to count its ballots ahead of the midterm elections Nov. 8.

According to the Secretary of State’s Ballot Return Statistics dashboard, 22.14% of eligible Washington voters have submitted their ballots, as of Tuesday, Nov. 1. 42.3% of voters aged 65+ have already submitted their ballots, the highest age demographic by far. Those numbers steadily drop by age group, with the lowest turnout so far among the 18-24 category, with only 6.7% having voted.

In King County, those statistics are slightly worse, with 21.1% of voters returning their ballots, and in Pierce County only 20% of voters have returned their ballots.

But compared to the most recent midterms in 2018, voter turnout is lower than it was at this time before the election, with 26.7% of ballots returned. The 2018 midterm also had a total voter turnout of 40.8%, “higher than any Presidential midterm year since 1970″ according to the Secretary of State’s report.

Of the 22.1% of ballots that have been submitted, 1.5% have been marked as challenged due to either the signature not matching voter rolls, or the ballot being unsigned.

If you have not received your ballot yet, or think that there may have been a mistake that will lead to your vote not getting counted, you can find more information about how to replace your ballot here. Not sure? You can also check your ballot status to see where it is in the process of being counted.

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