What a pending US Supreme Court ruling could mean for Whatcom County elections
Nearly 4,000 Whatcom County ballots arrived with a valid postmark after Election Day for the last presidential election, votes that would be rejected in future elections if the U.S. Supreme Court rules against the laws of 14 states, including Washington.
In oral arguments Monday, the court’s conservative majority seemed to agree with a Republican Party challenge that would invalidate a Mississippi law that lets those late-arriving ballots count, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, according to the online Scotus Blog.
Washington state accepts ballots that are postmarked by 8 p.m. Election Day for a period of 20 days.
“We received 3,940 ballots after Election Day with an on-time postmark” for the 2024 presidential election, Whatcom County Auditor Stacy Henthorn told The Bellingham Herald in an email.
That amounts to almost 3% of the 139,080 ballots cast in Whatcom County for the Nov. 5, 2024, general election. That election had an 83% turnout rate.
Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, a Democrat, wasn’t immediately available for comment this week, but a spokeswoman in his office told The Herald that about 127,000 voters statewide cast a ballot that was postmarked on or before Election Day but received after Election Day in 2024. That’s about 2.5% of the vote.
“We are watching this case closely. Washington’s vote-by-mail elections reflect decades of secure and accurate elections, removing barriers to citizens who want to participate in our democratic process,” Hobbs’ office said in an email.
GOP officials claimed in their lawsuit that Mississippi’s law violates a 1845 federal law that establishes the Tuesday after the first Monday in November as Election Day.
Henthorn said 156 ballots were rejected in the 2024 election because they arrived after Election Day with a late postmark.
An overwhelming majority of Whatcom County voters use the ballot drop boxes that are provided across the county, with 108,506 of 139,080 voters using drop boxes.
A total of 30,103 ballots arrived by mail, including those that were accepted and rejected, Henthorn said.
