Tuesday is Washington’s primary election, and ballots are trickling into the Clark County Elections Office.
As of Friday, the elections office had received 51,517 ballots. Given that Clark County sent ballots to 336,049 registered voters, 15.3 percent have been returned, according to the elections office.
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey estimates that voter turnout will reach roughly 40 percent.
Voter turnout for the 2022 midterm primary reached 44 percent and hit 50 percent in the 2020 primary, according to Kimsey.
The state’s presidential primaries occurred in February. Now, voters are looking further down the ticket and selecting candidates for county, state and federal offices.
In Washington’s jungle primary system, the top two vote-getters for each office will move on to the general election in November.
In the state Legislature, 25 out of 49 Senate seats are open, along with all 98 House seats.
Statewide races include those for governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, state auditor, commissioner of public lands and superintendent of public instruction.
The governor’s race has 28 candidates on the ballot but after the primary, only two will remain — even if they are from the same party.
Casting your ballot
To vote, ballots need to be postmarked or placed in a designated drop box by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Drop boxes are open to accept ballots 24 hours a day until 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Ballots that are postmarked after Tuesday will not be accepted. If you have not mailed your ballot, the U.S. Postal Service recommends using one of the county drop boxes.
The deadline to register to vote online or by mail has passed but it’s not too late to register in person. Clark County residents who still need to register or update existing voter registrations can do so at the Clark County Elections Office, 1408 Franklin St., Vancouver, until 8 p.m. on Election Day.
If you have not received your ballot, contact the elections office at 564-397-2345 to request a replacement. Replacement ballots may also be requested or accessed electronically at VoteWA.gov to print out and return by mail or drop box.
An online voters’ guide and a sample ballot are available at clarkvotes.org.
Preliminary results will be released by 8:30 p.m. Election Day. The results will be certified Aug. 20.
Deepfakes and misinformation
Washington voters should be wary of dubious election information such as deepfakes and other misinformation, according to Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs.
“As we move through Washington’s Aug. 6 Primary and toward the Nov. 5 General Election, I am concerned that a deluge of manipulated and false information may be inserted into social media from foreign actors and other sources,” Hobbs said in a news release. “Artificial intelligence is getting easier and cheaper to manipulate for a broad number of malicious actors. The rest of us must be careful to verify what we see before we take it to heart.”
Hobbs said that misinformation and deepfakes have already surfaced in this election cycle.
“The spread of deepfakes into state and local races is happening now in America,” he said.
In 2023, Senate Bill 5152 created Washington’s first limitations on the use of deepfakes in political campaigning. The law enacted disclosure requirements for any manipulated videos and gave candidates targeted by undisclosed deepfakes a right to sue for damages.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that there were 336,049 registered voters in Clark County as of Aug. 2, and that 51,517 had been returned.
