Thurston voter turnout was already nearly 75% when Election Day arrived
About 700 people pulled into the drive-thru voting center at South Puget Sound Community College on Monday, Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall said Tuesday.
On Election Day, as a line of cars formed in the rainy morning, she said she expects twice that amount.
As of Tuesday morning, 74.4% of eligible Thurston County voters had already cast their ballots, putting the county on track for record turnout. Hall is predicting the county could hit 90%, which would break the all-time record of 85.6% set in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected President.
The county already is seeing higher turnout than at the same time in 2016, when 46.9% of eligible voters had cast their ballots in the same period.
Many things are different in 2020.
“One of the things that is happening today that has never happened in a presidential election is voters can actually register to vote and vote on election day,” Hall said Tuesday morning. In the past, there was a nine-day cutoff.
Washington state has been a vote-by-mail state since 2011, but several state-level changes were put in place this year to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“People can wait until the last minute, we’ve worked really hard to encourage them not to. But it’s a great change in law for our voters in Washington state,” Hall said.
Election staff in orange vests held umbrellas and directed traffic through the county voting center set up on the SPSCC campus, where already-registered voters can pick-up or drop-off ballots, or sign up to vote by filling out the same-day registration forms in their car.
One of those people was Ken Lew, 31 years old and a first-time voter. Originally from Malaysia, he became a naturalized citizen through the military about six years ago, but hadn’t thought about voting until just a few days ago.
Lew said he felt obligated to “do my duty” and same-day registration allowed him to do so at the last minute.
Caitlyn Dougless is 19. She was thinking about voting but didn’t get around to it until Tuesday, and thought it was too late, until she realized she could go to SPSCC and vote the same day.
“I’m actually really excited to vote today, I didn’t think I was going to be able to vote today, but I’m glad I’m here and voting,” Dougless said.
Dougless added that she expected longer lines. According to Hall, the Auditor’s Office hired a professional traffic planner to help facilitate the process.
Samantha Jackson also registered Tuesday. She’s never voted before and just decided in the past few days after reading more about both of the presidential candidates.
“After reading more, I feel like it’s now or never,” Jackson said. “I feel like this is the most important election in my life, so I feel like this is the time.”
The process was easy and quick, she said, but in the future she plans to do mail-in voting.
“It’s been a very easy process,” Jackson said.
Asked if there was anything else she’d like to add about her experience voting, another woman in the passenger seat next to Jackson replied, “Go Trump.”
How ballots are reviewed
“There are a couple of things that can happen to a ballot” that will make it suspect, Hall said.
Common mistakes include forgetting to sign the voter declaration or signatures that don’t match.
When that happens, the ballot gets mailed back to the voter that same day to give them a chance to “cure” the ballot, Hall said.
At that point, they have 20 days to return the ballot before the election is certified, which happens on Nov. 24.
No ballots are ever thrown out, Hall said.
“We are a voter-intent state,” Hall said. That means that in cases where processors cannot determine voter intent, then the ballot gets sent to the canvassing board, which includes Hall, the county’s Prosecuting Attorney, and the chair of the Thurston County Commission, which then reviews the ballot to determine voter intent.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 2:10 PM.
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