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Have You Voted In The Primary Election? Mail-In Ballots Due By 8 O'Clock

It’s primary day in Washington. Tuesday’s vote will decide a parks levy in Seattle and narrow the field in dozens of state legislative and Congressional races.

Ballots for the all vote-by-mail election are due in drop boxes by 8 p.m.

For last-minute voters, the secretary of state’s office recommends using a ballot drop box, not the mail. If you need to locate your closest official drop box go to myvote.wa.gov.

Election results will begin to post after 8 p.m. Typically, counties update their numbers once on election night, then not again until the following day. That means in close primary races, we may not know who the top-two challengers will be until later in the week.

About 40 percent of the state’s registered voters are expected to mail in a ballot in this primary. It will set the stage for the November elections when all 10 Congressional seats, all Washington House seats and about half of state Senate seats are up.

The secretary of state says about 5 percent of ballots were mailed to voters with the return envelopes already sealed. If you got one of those, open the sealed envelope, put your ballot in it and tape it shut, and your vote will be counted.

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.