Election certified - King county voter turnout 75%

By Diane Hettrick

King county counted its last 300 ballots on Monday and the election was certified on Tuesday, November 27, 2018.

Here are King county statistics:

Number of Precincts	2,604
Number of Registered Voters	1,294,184
Total Ballots Counted	968,106
Estimated Ballots Left to Count
Next Ballot Count On	FINAL
Last Tabulated	11/27/2018 3:32 PM
Voter Turnout	74.8%
Certification Date	11/27/2018
Export Results	CSV · XML | Precincts CSV

75% is the highest voter turnout I remember seeing. People did indeed heed the call to vote.

I remind myself that the 25% who didn't vote included a lot of people with good reasons not to vote. Some are ill, incapacitated, out of the country. They may have moved - it never occured to me to cancel my old voter registration when I moved. Records and Elections catches this when you vote in a new area.

King county had a slightly higher voting rate than the rest of the state, which averaged out to 71.8%.

The county by county rates are fascinating (to me anyway!).

Five counties had over 80% turnout.

Three are tiny - at least in registered voters.

• Columbia county has 2728 voters and an 82.73% return rate (near Walla Walla)
• Garfield county has 1657 voters and an 83.28% return (near Walla Walla)
• Wahkiakum with 3096 voters and an 80.36% return (on Columbia River near ocean)

Midsized Jefferson county with 25,411 voters had an 83.12 return (Port Townsend to ocean)
San Juan county with 13,312 voters has an 83.83 return (San Juan islands)

Some of the biggest counties had the lowest rate of return.
Snohomish, Pierce, Yakima (central Washington) - but in this election "low" meant mid-60s.

The highest turnout in the state was Garfield county (83%) and the lowest was Yakima (62%).

Washington is one of only three states to use all mail in balloting, and this year, made the ballots postage free. Considering all the other problems with voting in the rest of the U.S., I'd say that we've figured it out and the rest should follow our lead.