ballot-king-county-election.jpg
Workers at King County's ballot processing facility open mailed-in ballots, Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2012, in Renton, Wash. Election officials estimate that hundreds of thousands of votes were left to count on Wednesday, including those in the very close Governor's race between Democrat Jay Inslee and Republican Rob McKenna. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Why does it take so long to count ballots?

BY Chris Sullivan  on November 8, 2012 @ 5:58 am (Updated: 11:15 am - 11/8/12 )

With the governor's race and charter schools still up for grabs in Washington, a lot of people are getting impatient waiting for results, and wondering why it takes so long to count the ballots and declare winners.

Check latest results

A snafu on Wednesday caused additional delays as King County Elections suffered a breakdown due to a record number of ballots to go through. Expect more results at 4:00 p.m. today. King County is scheduled to release their data at 4:30 p.m. and the Secretary of State's office will report at 5:00 p.m.

One of the main reasons that we're still waiting for results two days after Election Day is that Washington allows ballots to be postmarked by midnight on Election Day. That ensures several days of waiting at the mailbox.

Secretary of State Sam Reed said the state should consider doing what other states do and require the ballots be in by election day.

"So we would get a huge number counted on election day, but more importantly by say Friday of election week almost all of the ballots would be counted," he said.

"Instead of an election day, we have an election month," complained Jason Mercier, director of the Center for Government Reform at the Washington Policy Center, in a Seattle Times editorial.

"It doesn't have to be this way. Oregon has all-mail voting too but, unlike Washington, state ballots must be received by 8 p.m. on Election Day to be counted."

Reed agreed the Oregon model works well, but said the main reason the state hasn't made the switch is because of technology. He said every signature must be reviewed before ballots are processed. Right now that's done by hand. He believes it should be done by computer.

"That would really expedite things," Reed said. "If the counties are able to have that, then I think they're going to be more receptive to having the ballots arrive in on election day."

On the King County Elections website, they explain the process for counting.

Here is Step 6:

Opening is a three-step process

1. The security envelope, containing the voted ballot, is removed from the return envelope and separated.
2. Once all return envelopes have been emptied and set aside, workers open the security envelopes and remove the ballots.
3. We visually inspect the ballot to determine if the votes as marked by the voter can be properly read by our scanning equipment. Ballots that are physically ready for scanning and tabulation proceed straight there. Ballots with physical damage or unclear voter marks are sent to Ballot Review.

Reed said some of the tightest races may not be decided until Friday or later.

Supporters of Referendum 74 who hope to legalize same-sex marriage officially say they have won. Though, their opponents have said they won't be ready to concede until all the ballots are counted. The Washington governor's race shows Inslee in the lead, but the numbers are still tight, and results on the charter school initiative are also unclear at this point.

Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio Reporter
Chris loves the rush of covering breaking news and works hard to try to make sense of it all while telling stories about real people in extraordinary circumstances.
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Comments (11)


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  • cw1997 wrote...
    No Way
    November 8, 2012 6:24 am
    If King County gets efficient or the State for that matter then it becomes difficult to find those hidden ballots under a desk or in a closet. Just ask Dino.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    Hey, Sam ? Is that the Friday before Christmas ?
    November 8, 2012 8:03 am
    Looked at the final recap maps in USA Today today. ALL results are in,except for a very few scattered counties across the country and THE WHOLE STATE of Washington. ........ America is laughing.

    Hey, here's an idea. Why not have the people go to location - let's call them 'poling places - and they have to vote by 8PM on something called election 'day'. .... There can even be machines there capable of compiling the votes at each 'poling place' so election officials can post up the results for anyone to see who comes by THAT NIGHT.

    Gee - why hasn't anyone ever thought of something like that ?

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • eastcoastexpat74 wrote...
    Is that the Friday before Christmas ?
    November 8, 2012 8:14 am
    I never could understand this bassackwards way of voting in this state. And we thought Florida was the laughing stock of America.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • SeattleNerd wrote...
    mail in ballots are the future, dude.
    November 8, 2012 3:33 pm
    polling places are more expensive to run. I promise that in 50 years we'll be able to vote online. You can count on that.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • jaysonoo7 wrote...
    Anyone else think its fishy?
    November 8, 2012 8:38 am
    There was only a addition of less then 100,000 votes yesterday yet the 1st day they counted almost 2 million?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Angry Monkey wrote...
    Brace yourselves...
    November 8, 2012 9:03 am
    The conspiracy theorists are coming.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • flipper wrote...
    100% Mail Ballots?
    November 8, 2012 9:47 am
    100% failure. But that's what you get from lib dems whose whole model of governance is "get me to the next election so I can stay on the dole".
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Trillinon wrote...
    It's just a few days wait
    November 8, 2012 10:29 am
    The results generally don't go into effect immediately. I'm willing to wait on close results in exchange for the ability to put the ballot in the mail on election day. Sure, we've gotten used to instant information. But we're already much better off than when poll results had to be delivered by horse.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HLC wrote...
    The problem in King county is not counting all the votes.
    November 8, 2012 1:50 pm
    The problem is counting only the right votes (wink-wink). Have you ever seen that county do anything right the first time or four?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • William Lawn wrote...
    Yeah, we are the laughingstock all right
    November 8, 2012 3:24 pm
    Seven hour waits in some places in the US.

    Why should anyone have to wait more than a few minutes in this day?

    Amazing that brown faces in states with R Governors were those waiting the longest.

    You still got your As$E$ kicked.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CH wrote...
    have 2 look under every rock . . . .
    November 8, 2012 4:57 pm
    lot of blue rocks out there. Everyone knows who is going to win. The winner! My favorite color BLUE.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }