There are only a couple of days left to submit your ballot in time for election day on Tuesday, and tens of thousands of ballots remain unreturned.
Learn more about the candidates on The Columbian’s election page.
As of Friday, 37,936 of Clark County’s 250,707 eligible voters had returned their ballots, for a turnout of 15.1 percent. Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said that’s a bit slower than anticipated by this time, but remains optimistic that the county will hit the 30 percent voter return the Clark County elections office projected.
“We’re still hopeful that over the weekend and up until Tuesday that folks will mark their ballot and turn them in,” Kimsey said Friday.
Typically, the elections office sees a spike of ballots on election day. In 2014, 17,567 people — representing 6.9 percent of all eligible voters that year — returned their ballots on the day of the primary election. That year’s primary saw an overall turnout of 72,525, or 28.8 percent.
A bright spot in this year’s election has been the new 24-hour ballot drop-off boxes, which Kimsey said have been “very popular” with voters. So far, 7,469 voters have submitted their ballots through the drive-up boxes.
The Clark County elections office installed two of the bright red boxes — one at Fisher’s Landing Transit Center, the other at Battle Ground City Hall — earlier to make voting easier. The elections office is likely to install more before the 2016 election, Kimsey said.
Polls will close at 8 p.m. Tuesday, with election results coming shortly afterward. Voters can submit their ballots to any of Clark County’s three 24-hour drop boxes, to one of 31 schools or churches on election day, to the elections office on 1408 Franklin St. or mail it to the elections office.
Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday.
