As of Tuesday, voters had returned 22 percent of the 218,237 ballots mailed by the Clark County Department of Elections two weeks ago.
Nevertheless, Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey expects at least 60 percent of completed ballots to be returned by Election Day, Nov. 2 .
Kimsey said the pace of ballot returns this year matches almost exactly the numbers in the 2006 midterm election, when 23 percent of ballots had been returned by a week before ballots are counted. About half the 48,336 ballots returned so far arrived at the elections office Monday and Tuesday.
He said he was “a little surprised” that more voters hadn’t returned their ballots, but noted, “We have a lengthy ballot with a lot of initiatives and a referendum. That causes people to take a little more time. We definitely think that causes people to hold onto their ballots a little longer.”
In addition, ballots processed at a U.S. Postal Service sorting center in Portland were slow in arriving in Clark County mailboxes this year.
In the 2006 midterm election, when voters faced three ballot measures and a U.S. Senate race, the final turnout in Clark County was 61.6 percent, Kimsey said.
This year, county voters face a potential cliff-hanger in the U.S. Senate contest, an hotly contested race in the 3rd Congressional District, and several competitive legislative and local races as well as a number of hot-button ballot measures.
Secretary of State Sam Reed predicted two weeks ago that the 2010 midterm turnout would be 66 percent, the highest in 40 years.
“Hotly contested races and ballot measures, heavy television spending, and fired-up grass-roots activists all combine to suggest a strong turnout,” Reed, a Republican, said in a statement. He said participation should exceed the 64.6 percent statewide turnout of 2006.
Turnout in midterms always lags that of presidential election years. In 2008, statewide voter turnout in Washington was a record 85 percent.
“Many counties historically have higher turnouts than Clark County,” Kimsey said. “We ascribe that to the larger number of people who work out of state” and are less engaged in Washington politics, he said.
Kimsey, also a Republican, predicted vigorous get-out-the-vote efforts over the next week. He said conversations he’s had with voters also indicate they’ll be relieved when this election is over.
“The recurring theme I hear is how tired people are of receiving all these political mailers and watching all these TV ads,” he said.
