Ballots trickling in for Aug. 7 primary election

EVERETT -- Maybe it's the sunny weather.

Maybe it's the calendar.

Or maybe it's the contests themselves.

Whatever the reason, voters in Snohomish County are not returning their ballots for the Aug. 7 primary at anywhere near the rate election officials anticipated.

Snohomish County sent out 402,667 ballots and as of Friday morning only 21,831 ballots -- or 5.4 percent -- had been mailed in or dropped off. The amount is less than half of what county election gurus figured to have in hand by now.

Snohomish County isn't the only place voters are not rushing to submit their ballots. In King County, only 6 percent had come back as of Friday morning.

There's no obvious explanation for the trickle of returns.

Washington did move up its primary to Aug. 7. If you combine the earlier date with the recent spate of summer weather, the result could mean voters not thinking about their ballots yet.

Then again, voters may simply be undecided on several races and are taking a bit longer to make up their minds.

One such example may be the race for an open seat in the 1st Congressional District, the majority of which is in Snohomish and King counties.

There are seven candidates in the primary and in every poll done so far, the percentage of undecided voters is pretty high.

Results of a survey released last week found 26 percent had not made a choice while another poll issued Friday found around 17 percent still undecided.

If you have voted, you can check online to see if your ballot has been received at www.snoco.org/elections.



Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.