About 30% of Thurston County voters returned ballots by election day
About 30% of eligible Thurston County voters turned in their ballots by election day, making it the highest percentage for an odd-year local-only election since 2011.
Auditor Mary Hall called the turnout better than normal. She said that percentage should increase by the time mailed ballots are counted and the vote is certified on Nov. 23.
“I think by the end of the election, you know, I’m hoping maybe we can hit 35-40%,” Hall said. “Forty percent would be great.”
Hall’s staff received 58,952 ballots from the 195,603 registered voters in Thurston County as of Tuesday evening. In 2019, 28.4% of the county’s 186,468 registered voters returned their ballots, according to the Auditor’s Office.
Election day turnout percentages for odd-year general elections have gradually risen since 2015 when 23.7% of ballots were returned, per the auditor’s report. The highest turnout percentage in recent years occurred during the 2011 election when 38.6% of ballots were returned.
Hall said Tuesday’s turnout was most comparable to election day 2013 when 30% of ballots also were returned.
However, these percentages count ballots the Auditor’s Office has received rather than accepted ballots. Hall explained that staff check in ballots as soon as they receive them but they are only approved once they pass a signature check.
“We know we have a ballot for that voter in house, so they can’t go to another county and return a ballot,” Hall said. “That’s why we check them in upon receipt.”
Once a ballot has been verified, she said it goes to tabulation so it can be officially counted. When considering only accepted ballots, county data indicates turnout would be 27% as of Tuesday.
The city of Olympia had the highest turnout percentage of the county’s cities. About 30% of the city’s 36,886 registered voters had their ballots accepted by election day, according to a report on accepted ballots.
About 25.5% of the 34,081 eligible Lacey residents and 24.7% of the 17,147 eligible Tumwater residents voted by election day, per the report.
Meanwhile, about 19.8% of Yelm’s 5,107 registered voters, 17.2% of Rainier’s 1,529 registered voters, 21.2% of Tenino’s 1,200 registered voters and 19.7% of Bucoda’s 320 registered voters had their ballots accepted by Tuesday.
Hall said ballot collection and processing had gone smoothly by Tuesday evening. She called it a proven process.
“We’ve got it down,” Hall said. “It’s gone really well. We’ve got great staff.”
Results for the Nov. 2 general election in Thurston County, including city council races in Olympia and Yelm, Port of Olympia Commission, school board races and ballot propositions can be found on The Olympian website.
For coverage of select races, visit the Election section.
This story was originally published November 3, 2021 at 10:39 AM.
