Your top questions about voting in the 2024 presidential election in WA answered

Editor’s note: This article is part of U.S. Democracy Day, a nationwide collaborative on Sept. 15, the International Day of Democracy, in which news organizations cover how democracy works and the threats it faces. To learn more, visit usdemocracyday.org.

The 2024 elections are approaching quickly. Between registration forms, vote-by-mail deadlines and the seemingly endless different options to submit your ballot, the voting process can be difficult to navigate.

Luckily, Washington state has plenty of resources to simplify the process. McClatchy spoke with Washington’s Director of Elections, Stuart Holmes, from the Office of the Secretary of State, to answer all of your voting-related questions. Here’s what he had to say.

All your questions about voting in WA, answered

What are all the ways someone can register to vote in Washington?

Holmes: [It’s] very convenient that the voters in this state can register it a variety of different ways. They can, of course, register in person up to and on election day. They can register online or by mail up to eight days prior to the election. And then, of course, one of the most popular ways is when they update or get their driver’s license, they’ll either be automatically registered or submitted what’s called a motor voter registration.

When is someone automatically registered to vote in Washington? Is renewing your license the only way?

Holmes: That’s currently the only way that you’ll be automatically registered. There are other state agencies that do offer voter registration assistance, but currently only the Department of Licensing is automatically registering voters that have provided documentation that proves their citizenship, which allows them to get what’s called an enhanced driver’s license.

Are you still automatically registered if you get a standard license and not an enhanced license?

Holmes: If you were just getting your regular driver’s license, you may, in fact, also be providing documentation that proves your citizenship – there’s a variety of different forms of ID that you can provide when getting a driver’s license to prove who you are. But through that transactional process, you’ll get asked if you would like to register to vote, or what’s commonly referred to as an opt-in style of registration, where you’ll be asked a series of questions, and one of those would be if you’d like to register to vote.

How can you check if you’ve been automatically registered to vote?

Holmes: Voters can go to voter.VoteWA.gov, and there you’ll have an opportunity to put in your first name, last name, and date of birth. And if you’re registered, you’ll go right into a voter portal where you’ll see your registration status, your current registration information. But if you’re not, it’ll prompt you to register to vote online.

What are some common issues people run into when trying to register to vote?

Holmes: It’s very easy to register to vote in the state of Washington, so there’s not a lot of issues that voters will have when they’re registering. But commonly, people will want to submit a good signature. That’s a very important part of the process. When they’re registering online, you’ll either have the option to provide a signature or use the signature from your driver’s license. So just keep that in mind – when they’re voting and returning their ballot, that signature from the registration form will be compared to the signature on their return ballot envelope.

The other thing that’s very important is making sure that you enter your address correctly. Of course, in Washington state, all ballots are transmitted to voters by mail. They can be returned in a variety of other ways, but by mail is how those ballots will be received. And so that timely delivery is critical to giving the voter the maximum amount of time to process their ballot. Ensure you enter your address correctly, or if you’ve recently moved, that you’ve submitted your address change to your local elections office.

Is there a way to pick up your ballot, or do you have to get it by mail?

Holmes: If you don’t get your ballot by the mail, or you need a replacement ballot and it’s getting close to election day, you can go in person to any voting center in the state of Washington and get a replacement ballot. You can also, if you have a printer at home, or go to the library and utilize the printer there, you can actually issue what’s called an online replacement ballot – which is just your [able] to print off the list of races and candidates that you’re eligible to vote on and then return that by mail or in a drop box with the provided materials.

When you see a vote-by-mail deadline, does it need to arrive by the deadline or just be post-marked by then?

Holmes: All ballots need to be postmarked on or before election day, if they’re returned by mail. If you’re using a ballot drop box… those will open up 18 days before the election and will be available 24/7, through 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.

Is there any way to check if your ballot arrived on time and was counted?

Holmes: So there’s a variety of ways voters can keep up to date on the status of their ballot. So through that voter portal where you can log in, you can see not only registration status, but during an active election, you’ll also be provided the status of your ballot. So you’ll be able to see when it was sent, when it was received by the auditor’s office, when it was counted by the auditor’s office or accepted for counting. So you’ll be able to see all of that online. The other way is voters can actually text “vote” to VoteWA, which is just 868392 on your number pad, and actually subscribe to get ballot status update texts to them.

Now there are scenarios in which maybe the voter fails to sign their return envelope, or the signature doesn’t match, as I was referring to earlier, where there’s an action that’s required by the voter in order for the ballot to be counted. So they would be texted that information as well. If they’re not subscribed to text messages, they’ll get that notification by mail, email and the phone number on file – the county auditor will call them up and let them know to expect that notice in the mail.

How common is it for the signature on the ballot to not match the signature on file?

Holmes: It’s a low amount, but we do signature verification on every ballot that is returned… It’s usually less than 1% of ballots get rejected for [having the] signature not match.

When a signature is rejected, how common is it for the person to follow up and get their ballot counted?

Holmes: A majority of those ballots that are challenged get cured, is what we call it.

What’s the process like to cure your ballot if it’s been challenged?

Holmes: It’s very similar to returning your ballot, where you’re going to get a package of materials in the mail where it’s got a form that you need to complete, sign and return back to the county auditor’s office. It includes a prepaid envelope so there’s no need to go buy a stamp or anything like that. But you can drop that in a ballot drop box or throw it in the mail, and then USPS will bring it back to the local elections office.

But also through the voter portal – there is an opportunity to download that form and actually submit it back to the auditor’s office directly through the voter portal, where that will get transmitted directly to the local elections office through there. So if you have a printer and you print it, sign it, take a picture of it, upload it through the voter portal, that’s another very convenient way to cure the [ballot].

Can a Washington resident who’s currently out of state still vote in Washington? What’s the process for them to request a ballot?

Holmes: So if they’re just out of state, right, they can have their ballot forwarded to their new address, wherever they’re at. We have a lot of snowbirds retreating during the winter months, of course, so they can actually let the county auditor or the local elections office know that they’ll be out of state during a specific period of time, which we would call a seasonal address, and the auditor will then just automatically mail the ballot to that location.

If you miss that and you’re going to be out of state close to election day, all you’ve got to do is let the local elections office know where you’re at, and they can send you a ballot by mail that way… If you’re out of state and you didn’t get your ballot by mail or it was mailed back to you at home, you can retrieve an electronic replacement ballot online through the voter portal, if that’s a preferred method for you, as well.

What about a Washington resident who’s currently out of the country?

Holmes: The very same. So the unique thing with being out of the country is you actually fall into a federally protected class. For those voters that are overseas or out of the country, they can actually get their ballot mailed to them 45 days before the election. So just here, next Saturday [Sept. 14] will be the deadline for that.

So ballots for all military and overseas voters will be mailed no later than next Saturday, and that includes where they can actually identify that they have a ballot receipt preference of email. So in addition to receiving your ballot by mail, they can actually say ‘I’d like to receive my ballot electronically.’ They’re sent a link to where they can go retrieve that online and then print, sign and return that back to their local election officials using the provided instructions.

Does the state have any resources for people to find the nearest polling location?

Holmes: On our website, sos.wa.gov, you can find some information about all of the voting centers and drop boxes throughout the state. For the voter, they can log into that voter portal and actually see the drop box and voting centers that are closest to that. It would be specific to the county that they’re registered in, and [they’d] be able to see those listed in that voter portal, including directions, where they can click on one of the locations and see how to get there walking, driving or by transport.

Key dates for voting in WA

Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. For more information, visit the Washington Secretary of State’s election page. Here are some other key dates:

• Sept. 14

Deadline for military and overseas voters to get their early ballots.

• Oct. 18

Start of 18-day voting period that runs through Election Day. Ballots are mailed, and Accessible Voting Units (AVUs) are available at voting centers.

• Oct. 28

Online and mail voting registration due 8 days before Election Day. Register to vote in person during business hours and any time before 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.

• Nov. 5

In-person deadline for Washington State voter registration or updates.

• Nov. 5

General Election - Deadline to vote by dropping your ballot in an official drop box by 8 p.m., or to vote in person.

You can find your county’s elections office at the Secretary of State’s website. If you have any additional questions, you can contact your local elections office or consult the Secretary of State’s frequently asked questions page. If you have questions about your eligibility to vote, you can find a list of requirements on the Secretary of State’s website as well.

This story was originally published September 11, 2024 at 5:12 PM.