For some, voting by mail can be an easy and convenient way to cast a ballot in an election. But what if you’re concerned that your ballot got misplaced, or lost in the mail? Turns out, there’s a way to address that.
WA ballot tracking
Washington allows you to track your ballot online through its voter portal, which you can access at voter.votewa.gov. You can log in with your first name, last name and date of birth, and it will provide information about your registration and ballot status.
“So through that voter portal where you can log in, you can see not only registration status, but during an active election, you’ll also be provided the status of your ballot. So you’ll be able to see when it was sent, when it was received by the auditor’s office, when it was counted by the auditor’s office or accepted for counting,” Stuart Holmes, Washington’s Director of Elections, told McClatchy in a September interview.
There’s another way to get updates on the status of your ballot — you can sign up by text.
“The other way is voters can actually text ‘vote’ to VoteWA, which is just 868392 on your number pad, and actually subscribe to get ballot status update texts to them,” Holmes said.
Washington ballot status updates
When your ballot arrives, its status will be changed from “sent” to “received.” Once it’s been counted, its status will say “accepted.” If there’s an issue processing it, it will tell you that the ballot has been challenged, along with the reason it wasn’t accepted.
- What if there’s an issue with your WA ballot?
If your ballot is challenged, there’s a good chance you can still have it counted, but it might require you to take a few extra steps.
“Now there are scenarios in which maybe the voter fails to sign their return envelope, or the signature doesn’t match… where there’s an action that’s required by the voter in order for the ballot to be counted,” Holmes said. “So they would be texted that information as well. If they’re not subscribed to text messages, they’ll get that notification by mail, email and the phone number on file — the county auditor will call them up and let them know to expect that notice in the mail.”
Common fixable issues include a ballot that’s unsigned, signed by someone other than the voter, or has a signature that doesn’t match the voter’s signature on file. Your ballot could also require further review if your registration has failed the state’s identification review.
In these cases, county election officials will provide instructions for how to verify your identity so that your vote can be counted.
- What if your WA ballot doesn’t arrive?
If you mailed in your ballot, but the voter portal doesn’t indicate that it’s arrived, be patient. The Washington Secretary of State’s Office estimates that it can take three to five business days for your ballot to be posted. If you still don’t see your ballot’s status after that period, you can find the contact information for your county’s election office on the Secretary of State’s website.
