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While 588 primary ballots were left uncounted by staff at the Skagit County Office of Elections after the Aug. 4 election, only 36, 6%, came late from the post office, David Cunningham, deputy auditor and elections supervisor told the Weekly News Tuesday. Errors from 552 citizens left their votes on the table, with the largest portion, 337, 57%, having ballot signatures not matching the on-file records. No signatures were on 215 ballots, 37% of the uncounted total. If counted, the election turnout would have been boosted to 49,067. Counted ballots made for a 60% voter turnout.

Those 36 late ballots arrived in Mount Vernon after traveling to a U.S. Post Office Seattle processing center in Seattle, where all mail picked up in Skagit County goes. “[If] those ballots aren’t processed until after midnight on election day, USPS will postmark them as the next day, which will make them late. We have no control over that,” Cunningham wrote in an email. Ballots with a valid postmark date, received by the day before the County certifies the election, are countable.

Cunningham stressed mailing ballots at least two days ahead of election day. “If [a voter expects it] postmarked on election day, for God’s sake find a County drop box and not a mailbox and put your ballot there,” he told the Weekly News. “You are taking a risk that your ballot won’t be counted if you mail it even a day before.”

Cunningham, a decades long elections veteran, stressed early voting “the first week or 10 days they get the ballot that would significantly reduce the counting process.” Voters ignore that plea, he says, and almost half the votes come in the last two or three days of the election, causing staff “to be playing catch up for days,” he said.

Cunningham was reluctant to say his office was under resourced, though in the last three years it has been slower to finish ballot counting than most counties in the state. Staff work overtime, though rarely weekends. Processing space is the biggest constraint – more is needed – and COVID-19 requirements reduce the number of workers in the available space. More room will allow more staff.

A signature verification machine is budgeted, but Cunningham is not sure it will be ready to operate even if purchased this fall.

Mailing ballots first class

Last Wednesday the Office of the Secretary of State Wednesday issued an emergency rule change that requires county officials to use first class mail when sending ballot packets to voters beginning at least 15 days before Election Day.

“This will provide more consistency statewide and give voters some peace of mind heading into the Nov. 3 General Election” said Secretary of State Kim Wyman in a press release.

By law, ballots must be sent to voters no later than Oct. 16, the release stated, explaining that the mailing is sent via a nonprofit bulk rate, guaranteeing a 3-10 day delivery window. Under the new rule, all subsequent ballot mailings, like replacement ballots or ballots for newly registered voters, would be mailed via first class at least 15 days prior to Nov. 3. Ballots sent using the first-class rate have a delivery window between two and five days.

Ballots in Skagit County will be mailed Oct. 14 Cunningham said.

The 2020 General Election is Nov. 3.

Record primary turnout

The turnout rate statewide in the primary election was the highest on record for a primary since 1964, when over 840,000 people voted, representing a 56.06% turnout, the Secretary of State’s office reported. This year over 2.51 million people voted, 54.44% of all registered voters in Washington.