Primary Election 2010: How/where to get your ballot in on time

Procrastinating voters, don’t despair – there really is a way to vote **UP TILL MIDNIGHT TONIGHT**. We have just confirmed with the Riverton Heights branch of the U.S. Postal Service – near Sea-Tac Airport – that you can mail something there up until midnight, and it’ll be postmarked today – the King County Elections Department says your ballot DOES count as long as it’s postmarked (by) August 17th. Here’s more on the branch, including a map. Otherwise, the West Seattle USPS branches at Westwood and The Junction are about to close; the county dropboxes downtown and in Tukwila will ONLY accept ballots till 8 straight up. After that, you’re out of luck. Meantime, as for results: The county plans first results tonight around 8:15 pm – we’ll publish/link them here and bring you candidate reaction.

WS Mom August 17, 2010 (8:02 pm)

Dropped my ballot off at Riverview. Other civic minded folks were dropping off their ballots too.

nearalki August 17, 2010 (8:09 pm)

Accepting ballots 4 hours AFTER first results are ANNOUNCED? Seems…wrong…or something to me. I don’t mean wrong as in incorrect reporting but wrong as in…what the?? If an election come down to just a handful of votes and a whole slew of them come in just before midnight…well, I think you get my point.

miws August 17, 2010 (8:25 pm)

nearalki, for us long time voters it does seem odd, when we were programmed that “Polls close at 8:00pm”, for such a long time. And historically, “Absentee Ballots” have taken a few days to trickle in.

But now that it’s all mail-in in our County, it probably doesn’t matter so much. Even if they held firm with being postmarked by 8:00, the ballots probably would just sit around until the regular mail shipment goes out on the trucks, maybe overnight.

Speaking of time stamped postmarks, does anyone remember when they last saw one with the circle with the exact time, date, and full zip code? ;)

Mike

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