Updated Nov 3, 2009 - 8:13 am

King County expected on top for voter turnout

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The state's chief elections officer says the highest voter participation for Tuesday's general election will be in King County, where 57 percent of the mail-in ballots are expected to be returned.

"In some of the other counties around the state there's hardly anything on the ballot that is contested, so it's going to all balance out to give us a somewhat average turnout," says Secretary of State Sam Reed.

King County elections managers are expecting a last minute rush of ballots to start arriving in time for Tuesday's general election deadline.

"I would expect that on election night we're going to have probably 250,000 and 300,000 votes to report," says Chief Communications officer Kim Van Ekstrom.

Van Ekstrom says undecided voters have been slow so far to return their ballots. The big issues driving the higher response for King County ballots are the races for King County Executive and Seattle Mayor.

Secretary of State Reed says the main controversial statewide issues are the Tim Eyman tax initiative and the referendum on the new domestic partnership law. The statewide turnout is expected to be about 51 percent, which Reed says is average.

About 98 percent of the vote is being cast by mail. Pierce County is the only county that still has some polling places.

Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday at midnight, or dropped off at a designated site.

(Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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• Loud Larry wrote...

  Bogus mail in Ballots

  I am not at all comfortable with the mail in only ballot count. A few thoughts; Chief Communications Officer Kim Van Ekstrom states that “undecided voters have been slow so far to return their ballots”…and that is bad because… People are taking their time weighing the candidates and the issues? I’ve heard more than one mail-in voter complain that had they waited until today to vote they would have voted differently based on late breaking revelations and allegations regarding candidates and initiatives. Yes the onus is on the voter to hopefully make an informed decision, yet the Election Office pushes people to send in their ballots early. They also suggest not counting on the post office to post mark your ballot accurately if mailed too close to the deadline so you need to find a ballot drop off location. That is what I did this morning. At 8:00 am there were 15 to 20 other folks dropping off ballots in the collection receptacle. Ten or so of us lamented the loss of community that was shared at the polling locations. We also agreed that the mail in ballot system is complicated enough and vague enough to cause SOME to not vote. Our biggest concern was the removal of anonymity from our vote. We have to sign the ballot; albeit the envelope, but we trust that our name on the envelope won’t be reconciled with how I voted. With all the privacy issues at stake with the initiative process, what assurance do I have that my vote is anonymous and won’t EVER be held against me? There is something tangible, satisfying and accurate about voting in person with reasonable exceptions.

  November 3, 2009 2:49 pm

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