Elections official talks turnout, election security, and midterm results

With Election Day tomorrow, King County Director of Elections Julie Wise joined The Gee and Ursula Show to figure out why voter turnout is down, how secure our elections are, and when we’re expected to receive the much-anticipated midterm election results.

You have until 8 p.m. Tuesday to get your postmarked ballot in the mail or dropped off at one of the ballot boxes and election workers across the state are already scrambling to get ready to count the votes. Many statewide races are going to be decided based on what happens in King County.

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So far turnout is down in King County for the midterm elections. With an estimated 36% voter turnout, about 500,000 ballots have been returned to King County Elections headquarters. Compared to the last midterm election at this point, there was a 44% voter turnout.

There are ways to track your ballot after signing up for the new ballot alert system on the King County Elections website.

If you see that your ballot has been challenged for any reason, whether your signature doesn’t match what is on file or if it wasn’t signed at all, make sure to verify your identity when the elections officials come calling, Wise said.

“There are some folks that don’t reach out and get that signature issue rectified that we can’t count their ballot,” Wise said. “Voters should know that we have, in fact, all the way until Nov. 28 to get any signature issue resolved and still be able to count their ballot for this election. So what they hear from us even after Election Day, they should respond right away.”

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As far as when the elections will be determined, it might take a few days, Wise warns. Since so many ballots are still being collected from dropboxes and post offices across the state, it might be a few days or even a week before election results are actually finalized.

“So what happens is we typically see about 50% of our voters that are going to turn out for a given election have their ballot into our office by today. So we’re going to post results for those ballots tomorrow night after 8 p.m. But we’re waiting and we literally don’t have the other 50% of the ballots, they’re still being returned into drop boxes late tomorrow and to the United States Postal Service.”

Another concern has been with the security of the election, with former President Donald Trump challenging the results of the certified 2020 election, despite having little to no evidence of widespread voter fraud. However, these conspiracy theories have persisted among some voters and candidates, leading to an effort by Wise to emphasize all the steps they take to keep the count and their methods transparent.

“Folks that are skeptical of our election systems. It’s something that certainly all election administrators are well aware of going into this midterm election, we’re worried that we’ll see lower turnout because of it,” Wise said. “We have bipartisan observers here at the King County Elections facility at all times watching the process. We also believe in radical transparency, you can watch us hard at work through web cameras that are located throughout the ballot processing area. We even have a fifth-of-a-mile plexiglass literally transparent loop that folks can come in here at the King County Elections facility and see their ballot being processed.”

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“These elections are run by trained, dedicated professionals. Here at King County elections, collectively, we have thousands of years of experience, we’ve been running vote-by-mail elections here in King County, accounting for every ballot since 2009,” she continued.

The KIRO Newsradio election night special with Dave Ross and Dori Monson starts at 7 p.m. Tuesday night.

Listen to Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin weekday mornings from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.