How many Thurston voters have cast ballots so far in WA primaries? Here’s the latest count
With just four days to go until the Washington state primary election on Aug. 2, voter turnout in Thurston County is about on par with the turnout in 2018.
If you’re a fan of high voter turnout, that’s not exactly positive.
As of Thursday evening, voter turnout for the county was at 17.5%, according to a tweet from the Thurston County Auditor.
That equates to about 35,000 residents who have voted so far.
The Washington primary will allow residents to vote on candidates for the U.S. Senate and House, Washington state Supreme Court, Washington Secretary of State, state legislature, countywide elected offices, and precinct committee officers.
Depending on where in the county they live, Thurston County residents will vote in either Congressional Districts 3 or 10 for their U.S. representative and Legislative Districts 2, 19, 20, 22 or 35 for state representatives.
If voter turnout trends continue along the same line as 2018’s primary election, the eventual turnout will be around 40% for the county, equaling about 80,000 residents. According to the county auditor, the turnout trend is above 2014’s turnout, which didn’t even hit 30%, but lags behind 2010’s turnout of just over 40%.
Midterm election voter turnout nationwide averages around 40%, according to the nonprofit FairVote.
How and where to vote
Voter turnout increases the closer we get to election day. In Washington, the deadline to register online was July 25, but you can still register in person through election day, which ends at 8 p.m. Aug. 2.
For those who plan to register on election day, only two locations in the county offer registration and in-person voting: The Lacey Timberland Library at 500 College St. SE and the Thurston County Elections office at 2400 Evergreen Park Drive SW.
There are 31 other ballot drop-off boxes throughout the county, with locations in Bucoda, Lacey, Olympia, Rainier, Rochester, Tenino, Tumwater and Yelm.
If you’d like to watch volunteers counting votes in Thurston County online, you can do so via the county auditor’s YouTube live stream.
This story was originally published July 29, 2022 at 12:53 PM.
