SPOKANE, Wash. —
Now is the time for Spokane County’s 375,000 registered voters to make their voices heard. The Spokane County elections office said 8,000 ballots have already been mailed out and another 175,000 were sent out Wednesday.
Election day is Nov. 8, but the Spokane County elections office has been preparing for months to make sure voters are ready to cast their ballots.
“There is not a downtime in elections," Spokane County auditor Vicky Dalton said. "We are in election cycle, normally 40 weeks out of the year. Those other 12 weeks, we're doing catch up on voter registration information.”
According to the elections office, most registered voters will receive their ballots over the next two days. Dalton said if voters haven't received it by Oct. 25, they should look at their record in votewa.org and check to see if their address is right or wrong.
"You can also track the status of your ballot," Dalton explained. "'Did we mail it out?,' 'Have we received it back from you?' If any of that is wrong, or even if it's right and you still haven't received your ballot, give us a call."
Dalton said voters can look to the state and local voters’ pamphlet for how to be election ready.
“There's lots of good information about how vote by mail works, what the deadlines are and where to get help," Dalton said. "So please be sure to read through your voters' pamphlet, both for the races that are on your ballot and the basic information that will help make you a well-informed voter.”
This is the first year voters have access to a local Spokane County voters' guide.
Dalton said her office has high hopes for voter turnout.
“We're expecting roughly 70% of all voters to return a ballot to us,” Dalton shared.
To those anticipating casting a ballot, she said don't delay.
“Please return that ballot early to us because we want to be able to have it ready to go to be included in the results on election night,” Dalton said.
Dalton said there are a multitude of options on how to make sure a ballot is received and a vote is counted.
“Go put it in one of our bins at the libraries, at City Hall, they're very conveniently located, or you can put it in the mail," Dalton said. "But if you put it in the mail, it needs to be postmarked no later than election day.”
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