‘No major issues, just really, really busy,’ at Whatcom auditors’ office on election day
Whatcom County voters apparently waited until the last minute to vote in Tuesday’s presidential primary, with election officials indicating they were busy with mailed ballots and in-person voters Monday and Tuesday, March 9 an 10.
“No major issues, just really, really busy,” Whatcom County Auditor Diana Bradrick wrote in an email Tuesday afternoon.
“There’s been a constant line since mid-morning. I expect it will get fairly busy after work hours,” Bradrick wrote.
She wrote that the ballot drop boxes have been full, and “a fair amount” of ballots arrived by mail. Ballot boxes remain available until 8 p.m. Tuesday.
“(I am) expecting quite a bit of mail and full drop boxes tomorrow as well,” Bradrick wrote.
According to the auditor’s website Tuesday, some 56,775 ballots had been returned out of 148,847 registered voters.
Washington voters must declare a party preference for the presidential primary, unlike in other elections.
Only Donald Trump remains an active candidate on the Republican ticket, with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden on the Democratic side. Other Democrats were on the ballot, but several have dropped out of the race in recent days.
Ballots from voters who don’t declare a party preference will be set aside and the voters will get a chance to fix the oversight, Bradrick told The Bellingham Herald last week.
About 2,000 Whatcom County ballots had been rejected through Tuesday afternoon for various reasons, including no signature, no party, and signatures not matching the one on file, according to the votewashington.info website.
Check back about 8:30 p.m. for full online results at bellinghamherald.com.
