Voters throughout Snohomish County have eight new options for dropping off ballots for the general election.
Metal drop boxes from Arlington to Edmonds, Monroe to Mukilteo are ready to accept the approximately 375,000 ballots scheduled to be mailed today to Snohomish County’s registered voters. The boxes replaced the five staffed collection centers where voters could leave the ballots during the August primary and last year’s general election.
The boxes should give people a place to drop their ballots at any time without paying postage. “We see it as providing greater access to ballot drop service with no additional cost,” elections manager Garth Fell said.
“We would encourage folks to get their ballots in as soon as possible.”
A $35,600 federal grant through the Help America Vote Act paid for the ballot boxes. The county expects to spend about $5,000 to staff them.
You can find them at Sno-Isle Libraries in Arlington, Edmonds, Lynnwood, Marysville, Monroe, Mukilteo and Snohomish. Another box at Mill Creek sits on a traffic circle outside the U.S. Post Office.
The new ballot boxes look like the one outside the Snohomish County campus in downtown Everett since last year, which remains in use. Voters can drop off their ballots at any one of them until 8 p.m. Nov. 2.
Another option is mailing ballots, as long as the envelope is postmarked by election day. Ballots must have a 44-cent stamp.
County Auditor Carolyn Weikel has estimated a 64 percent turnout in this election, a couple of percentage points higher than an average even-year, nonpresidential election. That’s a touch below Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed’s projection of 66 percent turnout statewide, potentially the highest mark for a mid-term election since 1970.
The county plans to keep the drop boxes for future election cycles, Fell said.
In the past, community collection locations were staffed during regular library hours, and later on election night.
The county’s elections divisions has eliminated some services that weren’t required by law to save money. It cut about $70,000 by not printing or mailing out voter pamphlets for the August primary this year. The county also plans to continue using less-expensive ballot envelopes without a security flap, a move expected to save about $60,000 this year.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heralnet.com.
Places where Snohomish County voters can drop off ballots for the Nov. 2 election:
•Arlington Sno-Isle Library, 135 N. Washington Ave.
Edmonds Sno-Isle Library, 650 Main St.
Everett Courthouse Campus, Rockefeller Avenue and Wall Street
Lynnwood Sno-Isle Library, 19200 44th Ave. W.
Marysville Sno-Isle Library, 6120 Grove St.
Mill Creek, 159th Place SE, traffic island at Post Office
Monroe Sno-Isle Library, 1070 Village Way
Mukilteo Sno-Isle Library, 4675 Harbour Pointe Blvd.
Snohomish Sno-Isle Library, 311 Maple Ave.
For more information, go to www.snoco.org and search for “elections.”
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