Plenty Of Ballots Left To Count, King County Elections Says

RENTON, WA — Almost as many ballots are left to count as were included in election night tallies, as the latest ballots to arrive before polls closed are verified and added to the results, according to King County Elections.

More than 311,000 ballots were reflected in the first ballot drop Tuesday night, but that number does not include the many mailed or dropped off in the home stretch of the voting period. In an e-mail to Patch Wednesday morning, an elections spokesperson confirmed staffers were sorting through a large number of ballots dropped off over the final few hours before polls closed, and officials provided a "very rough estimate" that 300,000 were left to process from across the county.

With Seattle making up 40 percent of the ballots included in the election night returns, King County Elections estimated the Emerald City could be responsible for roughly 120,000 of the remaining ballots.

Officials said Wednesday afternoon's updated tallies would only include approximately 50,000 of the outstanding ballots, with about 20,000 of those from Seattle.

"Lots of ballots came back through drop boxes in the final hours yesterday and our team is working through these today," said Halei Watkins, communications officer at King County Elections. "Traditionally, though, today is a smaller drop of results as we get those ballots going in the work stream, and then Thursday and Friday tend to be larger results update days."

Seattle election results typically experience major shifts in the days after polls close, with later ballots also tending to favor more progressive candidates. In 2019, two city council candidates saw double-digit swings in their favor by late in the week. This year, however, election night percentages between key candidates were even more pronounced, including a nearly 30-point lead for Bruce Harrell in the Seattle mayor's race.

Related election night coverage around King County:

• King County Executive, County Council
• Ann Davison Leads Seattle City Attorney's Race On Election Night
• Seattle City Council 2021 Election Results
• Sammamish-Issaquah, Renton, Redmond, Bellevue and Kirkland 2021 Election Night Results.

Across King County, overall voter turnout improved to just over 33 percent as more ballots were processed. Participation was considerably higher in places like Mercer Island (43.75%) and Seattle (41.73%). Final turnout numbers won't be known until all ballots are counted, but the county updates its statistics twice per day.

The latest results showed a persistent gap in participation among age groups, with voters 65 and older outvoting those 18 to 24 by tenfold.

The county updates its official election tallies every day by 4 p.m. until all ballots that were returned are accounted for. Voters whose signatures are challenged have the opportunity to resolve the issue until the election results are certified.