Whatcom County is voting early at more than double the rate in 2016

People across the state and country are voting earlier than usual in this election, and Whatcom County is no exception.

On October 27, one week before Election Day on Tuesday, November 3, the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office had received 82,765 ballots. That’s more than half of all ballots from the 157,715 registered voters in the county and more than double the number of ballots that had been returned at the same point in the 2016 presidential election.

One week before Election Day in 2016, about 39,318 people had cast their ballots, according to data from the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office.

The rush to vote early is a break from the norm. County auditor Diana Bradrick said that in a typical election, about half the ballots come in four days the week of the election.

Election workers are thankful that people are voting early, Bradrick said. “It really helps even out the process so we’re not so buried on election week. We seriously appreciate it,” she said.

Whatcom County has nearly 19,000 more registered voters now than in November 2016 – 157,715 versus 138,962. Bradrick attributed that to population growth and efforts to register more young people. 

In the 2016 election, 82.7 percent of registered Whatcom County voters returned their ballots. For the current election, voter turnout was just over 52 percent as of October 27.

Statewide, 46.4 percent of people, or about 2.3 million, had voted by the end of the day on October 26, according to the Washington Secretary of State website. That’s more than double the number of people who had voted at the same point in the 2016 election, when just under a million people had voted.

Returns were highest in Ferry County (61.4 percent), Pacific County (60.1 percent), Columbia County (59.9 percent) and Jefferson County (58.7 percent). There’s a big range in turnout, as just 26.6 percent of voters in Klickitat County had cast their ballot by October 27.

Learn more about the current election at the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office website: Co.whatcom.wa.us/auditor. See voter turnout numbers across the state at bit.ly/35GVZbt.