OLYMPIA “Election Day” is already well under way – about a quarter of Washington state’s absentee voters have already mailed in their ballots.
Election officials said Tuesday that many voters already have made up their minds and may want to get off campaign mailing lists and avoid so many dinnertime phone calls.
Each mail ballot carries a voter identifier number and the political parties have access to information on which ballots have been returned, though not to the contents of the vote.
The state doesn’t keep a tally of mail ballots as they come in, but based on spot checks, elections official John Pearson estimated that about a quarter have already been mailed back and received by the county election offices.
The state estimates about 2 million absentees were issued, out of 3.4 million registered voters. An overall turnout rate of 84 percent is forecast, and at least 60 percent of the total vote is expected to come through the mail.
Mail ballots went out about 10 days ago and can be postmarked until midnight on election night, Nov. 2.
In Washington, voters don’t register by party and the ballots aren’t tallied until after polls close, so it’s not clear which party has the edge in the early voting.
Both parties keep close watch on the voting by mail and try to focus on those who still have ballots in hand.
Clark County GOP Chairman Brent Boger said early voters are like “money in the bank. On Election Day, we can concentrate on the rest.”
A number of county auditors said the return rate is considerably faster than in earlier years. The trend has been for voters to hold their ballots until the final weekend, but a number of counties said Tuesday that they have about a third of their mail ballots in hand already.
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey told The Columbian newspaper that ballots are coming in at a “much, much faster rate. The obvious reason is more people made up their minds earlier. In large part, that is driven by the presidential race. You have two very different candidates running for that office.”
About 21 percent of the Clark absentee ballots had been returned by Monday, up from 13 percent on the comparable date in 2000.
Snohomish, Spokane and Kitsap counties said about 33 percent of absentee ballots had been returned and Yakima was at nearly 36 percent. King, the largest county, was at 23 percent, and Pierce County at 19 percent.
Spokane elections manager Paul Brandt expects to get 85 percent to 90 percent of his absentee ballots back, with an overall voter turnout of about 85 percent.
On the whole, about 55 percent of the total vote will be tallied on election night, Pearson estimated.
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