Today’s election is a game of numbers, and not just for the winning and losing candidates.
The Snohomish County elections department sent out 168,883 absentee ballots, of which 52,381 had been returned as of Monday.
Although it may seem like everyone votes absentee, not everyone does. There will be 174 polling places open around the county from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. today. They will be staffed by about 700 poll workers. And voters will be using about 850 of the county’s 1,000 direct recording electronic voting devices.
The cost of the election will be $550,000 to $600,000 and up to 35 percent of the county’s registered voters are expected to cast ballots.
In nonpartisan races, the top two vote-getters in each will advance to the Nov. 4 general election. In partisan races, the top vote-getters for each party will advance. While county executive is the key race, there also will be ballots cast for six mayoral races, five city councils, three emergency medical services levies, two school districts, two fire districts and one port district and assessor.
Elections manager Carolyn Diepenbrock said Monday that results will be available online starting at 8:05 tonight. Those results will be those from absentees. Information from polling places start coming in about 9 p.m., with those results being posted starting at 9:30 p.m. and every half-hour after that.
Diepenbrock said the electronic voting machines have been tested and are tabulating correctly.
She added that only about 5,700 absentee ballots came in Monday.
"They are not following their normal return rate," she said of absentees. "Maybe people are waiting until the end or are confused, so they are taking a little extra time."
Suzanne Sinclair, Island County auditor, said that county sent out 10,107 absentee ballots and has received 3,990 back so far. Island County’s first returns will be posted on its Web site about 9 tonight.
Assistant city editor Steve Powell: 425-339-3427 or powell@heraldnet.com.
For previous Herald primary election stories and links to Snohomish and Island county voters’ pamphlets and election results see: www.heraldnet.com/Elections.
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