by Laurel Demkovich, Washington State Standard
November 1, 2024
So, you turned in your ballot for Tuesday’s election. Now what happens?
Before it’s officially counted, a Washington ballot makes multiple stops on the road to acceptance. The state’s elections system is a large operation with thousands of workers and volunteers sorting mail, verifying signatures and counting ballots for weeks surrounding Election Day.
As of Friday morning, 43.6% of ballots had been returned and were going through that process. That’s down from 61.4% at this time in the 2020 election, though election officials anticipate this year’s number to jump over the weekend and into early next week.
Here’s a look at your ballot’s journey after it leaves your hands.
Drop off and pick up
County election workers empty ballot drop boxes regularly before Election Day. Teams of two open boxes and go through a security checklist before collecting ballots, ensuring they are safely handled between the box and the processing facility.
After an arson attack at a Clark County ballot drop box this week, county auditors across the state said they will increase the frequency of pickups before Tuesday to ensure no ballot is sitting in a box for too long.
For ballots returned by mail, the U.S. Post Office delivers them regularly to county elections offices. The Post Office encouraged voters to turn in their ballots by Oct. 29, though Washington allows ballots to be postmarked until 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Once they arrive at an elections office, ballots are sorted by precinct and scanned to help verify signatures and ensure a voter has only voted once.
Signature verification
Election workers go through every ballot and compare the signature on the envelope to the signature associated with the voter’s registration. Workers are trained to catch irregularities.
If the signature is missing or if it doesn’t match the one on file, the county will contact the voter by mail to “cure,” or fix, the problem.
All envelopes with accepted signatures are then opened, and the ballot inside is separated from the envelope to ensure anonymity for every voter.
Ballot scanning
Election workers check every ballot by hand for anything that might cause problems with scanning, such as tears, spill marks or mistakes.
Mistakes are reviewed further to ensure the voter’s intent is correctly recorded before scanning.
Ballots are then run through a scanner, which is not connected to any computer network or the internet, according to the secretary of state’s office. Once a ballot is scanned, it is stored in a secure location in the facility.
Tabulated on election night
Although ballots can be scanned as soon as a county receives them, no votes are actually tabulated before 8 p.m. on election night. At that point, scanned ballots are tabulated and unofficial results are reported.
Voters can check results starting at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at the secretary of state’s website.
The process repeats until all ballots are counted. Election results are officially certified three weeks after Election Day.
There’s still time to register and vote
Still want to get in on the voting action? Ballots can be turned into a county drop box or postmarked in the mail until 8 p.m. on Election Day. If you still need to register to vote, you can do so in person at a county election office until Tuesday.
If you’ve already turned in your ballot and are curious where it might be in the process, you can track your ballot at VoteWA.gov. If you want to watch the process yourself, counties allow people to observe their ballot counting in person and sometimes through live streams on their websites. To find your local elections office, visit the secretary of state’s website.
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