Clark County voting gets off to slow start

Although voters are expected to turn out in near-record numbers for the November midterm election, it seems they are off to a slow start.

As of Tuesday, the Clark County Elections office has received 59,558 of the 326,423 ballots mailed, putting voter turnout at 18.24 percent. During the 2018 midterm, the elections office received 77,979 ballots during the same period.

One factor, said Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey, may be an increase in sporadic or delayed deliveries by the U.S. Postal Service. For example, the elections office received 1,500 ballots by mail on Tuesday. On the same day in 2018, it received 12,000 ballots by mail.

“After taking into account impact of potential USPS delivery issues, we are seeing slightly lower rates at which ballots are being returned at this point,” Kimsey said.

With a fairly lengthy ballot that includes U.S. House and Senate races, six charter amendments, legislative races, state races, county offices and more, voters may just need extra time to do their research and complete their ballots, he said.

Another possible factor is that some candidates have encouraged supporters to wait until Election Day to return their ballots, Kimsey added.

Ballots can be retuned by mail, in person or left in one of the county’s 22 ballot drop boxes across the county. For more information and drop box locations, go to https://clark.wa.gov/elections.