Voters in Washington are starting to receive their ballots by mail, and state election officials want people to return them as soon as possible ahead of the Nov. 3 general election.
More primary ballots were rejected this year compared to previous years because they were received late. In the August primary, more than 20,000 ballots were rejected because they were not postmarked by election day, according to data from the Washington Secretary of State’s office. That is up from the 2024 primary, when around 16,000 ballots were rejected for the same reason.
Election officials are telling voters to drop their ballots at a county-operated drop box or mail them at least one week ahead of the Election Day deadline. If voters have to mail their ballots, they can go to a post office and request a postmark from a clerk.
Garth Fell, president of the Washington State Association of County Auditors, said in certain locations across the country, the U.S. Postal Service has switched from picking up mail multiple times a day to doing so just once, typically in the morning.
“If you don't meet that morning pickup deadline, your mail piece — and in our case, ballot — is going to hang out at the post office for 24 hours,” Fell said.
In some counties, he said, that delay has been even longer.
“There have been some extreme cases where it's been up to a week or two for a piece of mail to move through the postal system and get back to the election’s office,” Fell said.
Mail carriers stopped collecting mail multiple times a day from certain locations to cut costs, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The agency did not make anyone available for an interview, but spokesperson Janella Herron confirmed that there are now fewer collection times for mail.
The Postal Service is also changing how it processes that mail, according to U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.
“The post office is taking your ballot as a piece of mail, but not stamping it that day,” Cantwell said at a press conference in early September. “They are waiting and going to a distribution center. And then later postmarking that and may thereby be delaying your actual vote.”
In a statement, the Postal Service said it had not changed its postmarking policy. Instead, in December, it clarified its policy through a rule that postmarks are generally applied at processing facilities.
In response to criticism about delayed ballots, the Postal Service posted guidance stating that locations can set up lines just for clerks to postmark ballots. The agency said it will also work to expedite ballots from late October through Nov. 3.
Meanwhile, Cantwell’s office said the broader changes at the Postal Service are having a greater impact on rural communities, such as Mason County on the Olympic Peninsula, where the number of late ballots quadrupled in the August primary compared to 2024. This year, the county began running a public service announcement on a local radio station, telling voters to mail their ballots at least one week before Election Day or to request a manual postmark at their post office.
Steve Duenkel, the auditor for Mason County, said his office is reaching out to the 258 voters whose ballots were not counted in August.
“So they know why their ballot was rejected, and they can make whatever changes in their own planning and preparation to make sure that the ballot gets here on time next time, or in future elections,” he said.
Once you vote, you can track the status of your ballot by visiting the Washington Secretary of State’s website. There, you can also find a map of voting centers, where election officials can help register someone to vote as late as 8 p.m. on Election Day.
