About 64 percent of Washington’s 4.8 million registered voters participated in the November 2022 midterm races for state lawmakers, statewide elected officials and members of the U.S. House.
While this is a significant increase in turnout compared to the August primary, it is notably lower than the turnout for the 2018 midterms, according to an analysis of data from the Secretary of State’s Office.
Since the 2018 midterms, registered voters in Washington have increased 10 percent. But turnout for the 2022 midterms dropped 8 percentage points compared to four years ago. Despite the downturn, participation remains at least 10 percentage points higher than in 2014, when Republicans last flipped the Senate.
The 2018 midterm elections saw a 17 percent increase in voter participation from the 2014 midterms. The population of registered voters expanded by 12 percent.
Most of this year’s decline in voter turnout was recorded in Central Washington, followed by the Puget Sound region, where half the state’s voting population resides. Counties running north to south in Central Washington recorded an average decline of 8 percentage points.
The lowest turnout was recorded in Yakima and Franklin counties in South-central Washington, where half the registered voters did not turn in their ballots. Much like in the primaries, these counties — led by Pend Oreille County in the east — recorded the largest declines in voter participation compared with 2018.
King County — which accounts for 30 percent of voters in the state, overwhelmingly Democrats — recorded a 10 percentage-point decrease in turnout from the 2018 primary. Though voter participation predictably rose since the August primary, it could not recover from the drop in participation recorded then.
Voter turnout in Spokane County, which has the most voters in the state outside of the Puget Sound region, was 11 percentage points lower. Its primary-to-general election voter-participation increase was also much lower this year than in 2018.
Overall, Washington saw a 24 percentage-point increase in voter turnout for the midterms from the August primaries this year.
Voter participation particularly surged in northern San Juan County, North-central Kittitas County and Whitman County in the east. Registered voters in those areas combine for 3 percent of the voting population.
