NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Monday, November 2nd, 2015

Voter turnout in Washington State inches towards double digits, with one day to go

Vot­er turnout in the 2015 gen­er­al elec­tion is slow­ly increas­ing as the dead­line to return bal­lots nears, elec­tions offi­cials are reporting.

As of this after­noon, 750,000 bal­lots had been received by Wash­ing­ton’s thir­ty-nine coun­ty elec­tion offices which amounts to 18.9 per­cent of those issued.

Here is the break­down by county…

11/2/2015 @ 1:45PM                 
Coun­tyVot­ersReturnedPer­cent­age
TOTAL3,966,277  750,365 18.9%
ADAMS6,180 1,41822.9%
ASOTIN13,323 3,96429.8%
BENTON99,328 18,69018.8%
CHELAN40,567 11,85929.2%
CLALLAM47,374 9,31219.7%
CLARK251,348 48,33319.2%
COLUMBIA2,621 91735.0%
COWLITZ59,411 10,29517.3%
DOUGLAS19,595 4,56323.3%
FERRY4,567 1,43831.5%
FRANKLIN30,460 5,43317.8%
GARFIELD1,540 58037.7%
GRANT36,592 9,47525.9%
GRAYS HARBOR38,621 10,96428.4%
ISLAND50,338 14,89729.6%
JEFFERSON22,949 8,12935.4%
KING * as of 10311,193,711 181,28415.2%
KITSAP * as of 1030153,824 29,69619.3%
KITTITAS22,192 5,25423.7%
KLICKITAT13,307 2,31817.4%
LEWIS43,703 11,97527.4%
LINCOLN6,865 2,31933.8%
MASON35,711 9,51926.7%
OKANOGAN21,434 6,01228.0%
PACIFIC13,504 4,80335.6%
PEND OREILLE8,414 2,86834.1%
PIERCE449,340 80,91418.0%
SAN JUAN12,151 4,01533.0%
SKAGIT69,069 14,85721.5%
SKAMANIA7,094 1,65023.3%
SNOHOMISH421,389 60,32414.3%
SPOKANE285,258 68,58224.0%
STEVENS29,046 5,93920.4%
THURSTON163,893 29,45118.0%
WAHKIAKUM2,964 88129.7%
WALLA WALLA32,176 8,45026.3%
WHATCOM128,345 33,42526.0%
WHITMAN20,353 4,23720.8%
YAKIMA107,720 21,32519.8%
TOTAL3,966,277  750,365 18.9%

As you can see, tiny Garfield Coun­ty has had the best turnout so far, with 37% of bal­lots returned. But it is home to only 1,540 reg­is­tered vot­ers. That is less than one neigh­bor­hood in Seat­tle or Spokane. Jef­fer­son, Colum­bia, and Pacif­ic coun­ties each have about 35%, which is pret­ty decent.

Of the big­ger coun­ties, What­com and Spokane have the best turnout so far, with 26% and 24% respec­tive­ly, trailed by Clark at 19.2%.

The state’s three largest coun­ties are all sad­ly below the statewide aver­age. Pierce is doing the best with 18%. King is lag­ging behind at 15.2%. Sno­homish, mean­while, has the dis­hon­or of being the worst in the state with 14.3%.

If you have not vot­ed yet, be sure to get your bal­lot in! We’ve got rec­om­men­da­tions up on Bal­lot­Guide if you need help nav­i­gat­ing the bal­lot mea­sures.

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