Low voter turnout in King County so far, but many wait until Election Day to return ballots

On Election Day outside the King County Elections Headquarters in Renton, King County resident Lisa Jackson explained why she votes every year.

“I make sure to vote every time, so I can complain when I need to! You have to vote, or you can’t complain,” Jackson said.

King County election officials may have some complaints of their own if they looked at voter turnout on the morning of Election Day.

Only 19.2% of voters had submitted their ballots as of 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

With that percentage equating to 262,607 ballots returned, that leaves more than 1.1 million voters out of the loop so far.

However, whether it’s indecisiveness, procrastination, or something else (maybe a combination of both?)… voters tend to wait until Election Day to return their ballots, even with mail-in voting widely available.

For example, 2019 was the most-recent, previous election before a presidential election.

On Election Day in 2019, 217,775 voters returned their ballots. That was more than the previous 14 days combined.