Washington residents rushed to register to vote this weekend, as voter registrations hit one-day records twice.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, 27,601 people statewide signed up to vote online Monday — the state’s voter registration deadline — breaking a record set the day before, when 23,167 voters registered to vote.
“We are ecstatic to see more than 50,000 new registrations in the past 48 hours,” said Secretary of State Kim Wyman in a news release. “These are great days for citizen engagement, and we welcome every single new voter.”
The office credits interest in the heated presidential race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump for the spikes. Facebook has also been promoting voter registration in users’ news feeds.
Clark County Elections Supervisor Cathie Garber estimated that Clark County had about 2,000 voter registrations or address updates waiting at their office Monday morning, and they kept coming in “fast and furious.” She didn’t know whether that was a record for Clark County, which the Secretary of State’s office reports has about 266,000 total registered voters.
“We spent all day long working on them, and they just kept on coming in,” she said.
Early voters have already submitted their ballots in Clark County, Garber said. Military ballots went out to service members abroad on Sept. 23, and a few hundred have already returned their ballots, she said.
She also noted that there are voters “from every continent” who list Clark County addresses as their permanent home, including researchers in Antarctica. Those voters submit their ballots by email, she said.
Voters who have never voted in Washington can register in person at the Clark County Elections Office until Oct. 31, about a week before the Nov. 8 General Election.
Ballots are scheduled to be mailed out Oct. 19.
