Washington Draws Close To Breaking Voter Turnout Record

WASHINGTON — More Washingtonians voted in the 2020 Nov 3. Election than in any other election in state history. However, there is one important record left to break: the voter turnout, or percentage of registered voters who have returned their ballot.

Already the state has received the ballots of 4,070,377 registered voters— marking the first time more than 4 million people have voted in any single election in Washington.

But, because the population of Washington has grown so much over the past few years, that historic number doesn't actually represent a higher percentage of voters who have submitted their ballots.

In the 2008 General Election, 84.61 percent of all registered voters submitted their ballots, more than have been returned from this election, but the gap is closing.

The latest update Friday evening showed the voter turnout growing from 84.0 percent to 84.4 percent. As military ballots sent in from overseas or ballots that were postmarked before the election but delayed en-route to voting centers, Washington very well could pass that threshold and break the 2008 General Election's record. Late-arriving ballots have pushed the turnout to grow from 83.2 percent over the past 48 hours alone, and the percentage will continue to grow as ballots arrive all the way up until the election is certified. Under federal law, a state must wait three weeks until the vote can be certified, meaning Washington has until Nov. 24 to break the milestone.

For comparison, 79.4 percent of registered Washington voters cast their ballots in the 2016 presidential election.

As of the last update from the Secretary of State's Office, 3,923,016 of the received ballots have been counted, and an estimated 147,361 remain to be processed.

Top 10 counties for voter turnout, by percentage (as of 11/6):

1. San Juan County: 90.5% (13,260 ballots)
2. Jefferson County: 90.2% (24,980 ballots)
3. Columbia County: 88.9% (2,520 ballots)
4. Garfield County: 88.6% (1,495 ballots)
5. Lincoln County: 88.4% (7,155 ballots)
6. Kittitas County: 88.2% (26,796 ballots)
7. Whatcom County: 88.1% (139,850 ballots)
8. Wahkiakum County: 87.5% (3,045 ballots)
9. Skagit County: 86.3% (73,963 ballots)
10. Chelan County: 86.2% (43,637 ballots)

Among Washington's three most populous counties, King leads with 86.0 percent turnout (1,228,972 ballots), followed by Snohomish at 85.3 percent (442,374 ballots) and Pierce with 82.4 percent (467,831 ballots).

Related links:

• With No Path To Victory, Culp Refuses To Concede
• Inslee Calls For Continued Ballot Counting As Trump Cries Foul
• Washington ballot return statistics
• Statewide voting results