Today is Election Day. In the “Vote by Mail” elections we have now, most of us do not head for our local polling place to cast our votes, but mailed ballots must be postmarked today or returned to a ballot drop box by 8:00 pm. (Be aware that if you get your mail to the mailbox after the final pickup of the day—even if it is before 8:00—you won’t get that November 2 postmark.)
If you prefer to drop off your ballot and save postage (no stamp is required if you use a drop box), there is a drop box at the King County Administration Building, 500 Fourth Avenue. Other in-city drop boxes are in Ballard and the University District. See this page for the list of all drop boxes in King County.
There is another nearby option to vote: the Accessible Voting Center at Union Station, 401 South Jackson Street in the International District. The accessible voting center is intended to provide voters with disabilities the opportunity to vote on an accessible voting unit, but is open to all voters. There is also a ballot drop box at the center. If your mail ballot was damaged or lost, you can vote at the center, but you must bring identification. See more about the accessible voting center here.
King County is estimating a total election return of about 720,000 ballots, or 68 percent of registered voters. Election results will be reported on the King County Elections website at 8:15 pm tonight and updated on following days at 4:30 pm.
Photo by Theresa Thompson via Creative Commons.
One note regarding the ballot drop boxes: there used to be one on Othello St at the Neighborhood Service Center near MLK. Unfortunately, King County elections has decided not to use that one anymore. I went to drop my ballot off there this morning and two other people were there with me scratching their heads wondering where they should take their ballots. I ended up just dropping mine in the mail, but it’s disappointing there is no longer a ballot drop box anywhere in south Seattle anymore, especially since KC Elections encourage you to use the drop boxes and not the mail.
Not only has King County Elections cut back on the drop boxes, their website doesn’t even list all of the ones they have left. Omitted from the list were the box at Union Station, 401 S. Jackson St., and at their old election headquarters on Grady Way in Renton. Weird.
Yes, there were drop boxes at all of the accessible voting centers, and those weren’t mentioned on the drop box list page.
I think they consider those as different from the other drop boxes which are open 24 hours a day until the polls close. The ones at the voting sites were just cardboard boxes, and probably were only open when the voting sites were open.
Let’s not mention the 3-4 hour lines to vote at Union Station tonight…