Pierce County Sees Historic Voter Turnout For August Primary

SUMNER, WA — Election officials are celebrating a historic voter turnout for the August 4 primary election.

In the primary, 51.9 percent of voters cast their ballots, more than Pierce County has seen in decades. To put that in perspective, in the 2016 primary the turnout was just 36.7 percent, and even lower in 2012 with 36.1 percent.

But the voters really came out this year, and there was good reason: the August primary included several high-profile statewide races like the race for Governor or Lt. Governor, but it also included some key Pierce County-specific issues like the race to be the next sheriff, plus dozens of local elections for different jurisdictions all across Pierce County.

The results of those races have been fairly stable since the polls closed and the first ballots dropped late on the 4th, but Tuesday's certification of the vote sets the results in stone, and gives us some new insight into how many Pierce County voters cast their ballot, and where.

According to the Pierce County Auditor's Office:

• 548,803 voters received ballots
• 279,580 ballots were cast and accepted
• 1,406 ballots had to be forwarded to other counties
• 3,659 ballots were rejected
• Of the rejected ballots:
  • 2140 were late, postmarked or mailed in after the due date
  • 1089 had mismatched signatures
  • 221 had missing signatures
  • 34 were cancelled, had no ballots inside the empty envelope, or were cast by voters who were deceased

In addition, 67 voters managed to cast their ballots, but cast them for the wrong election. 4199 ballots were also marked as undeliverable, and their respective voters have been declared inactive.

The data from the Pierce County Auditor's Office also gives a glimpse at where the most people voted. For example, the South Hill Library was far and away the most popular ballot dropoff location, collecting 13,113 ballots. The second most popular was the Pierce County Annex, which saw 10,761 ballots. Way at the bottom was the Ashford County Park, where just 163 people cast their votes.

Read the full report from the Pierce County Auditor's Office.

See the total result of the vote.