Washington Breaks Voter Turnout Record

OLYMPIA, WA — As of the latest update from the Washington Secretary of State's Office, the state has received ballots from 84.7 percent of registered voters, breaking the previous turnout record of 84.61 percent set during the 2008 presidential election.

As of Wednesday, the state says they've gathered 4,142,687 ballots from the state's 4,893,247 registered voters. The election also marks the first time more than 4 million ballots have been cast in Washington. For comparison, just 79.4 percent of registered Washington voters cast their ballots in the 2016 presidential election.

Of the returned ballots, an estimated 37,000 still need to be counted. More are also likely to come in as military ballots sent in from overseas or ballots that were postmarked before the election but delayed en-route arrive at their respective voting centers.

Here are the top 10 counties for voter participation this year, by percentage:
(as of Nov. 10 at 5 p.m.)

1. San Juan County: 90.9% (13,314 ballots)
2. Jefferson County: 90.3% (25,007 ballots)
3. Garfield County: 89.3% (1,506 ballots)
4. Columbia County: 89.0% (2,522 ballots)
5. Lincoln County: 88.5% (7,124 ballots)
6. Kittitas County: 88.4% (26,868 ballots)
7. Whatcom County: 88.3% (140,175 ballots)
8. Wahkiakum County: 87.5% (3,045 ballots)
9. Skagit County: 86.7% (74,250 ballots)
10. Clallam County: 86.5% (49,876 ballots)

While most races have been called, a several legislative contests remain close. One notable case is the race for Legislative District 5 between progressive challenger Ingrid Anderson and incumbent state Sen. Mark Mullet. As of Tuesday's update, Mullet leads by just 101 votes, up from a 78 vote lead Monday.

Among Washington's three most populous counties, King leads with 86.1 percent turnout (1,230,586 ballots), followed by Snohomish at 85.9 percent (445,940 ballots) and Pierce with 82.7 percent (469,472 ballots). The county with the lowest turnout by percentage is Yakima County, where just 76.0% (97,060 ballots) of registered voters cast their ballots.

The Secretary of State will certify the state's election results by Tuesday, Nov. 24.

Learn more about elections in Washington:

• What triggers a recount?
• 2020 General Election: Statewide Results
• Secretary of State's 2020 elections calendar
• Voter turnout by election