1.7M in state have already voted; 83 percent statewide turnout expected

OLYMPIA — More than half of the state's expected voters had returned their ballots to elections officials by Monday, a day before Election Day.

A county-by-county assessment by The Associated Press found that more than 1.7 million ballots had been returned.

Secretary of State Sam Reed predicts 83 percent turnout statewide — about 3 million people — so about 56 percent of the expected voters have sent back their ballots.

Ballots were sent out Oct. 17 and must be postmarked by today.

Thirty-seven of the state's 39 counties are voting entirely by mail. King and Pierce counties still have poll sites, though a majority of voters in those counties already vote by mail.

In rural Columbia County, where elections officials have predicted a 92 percent turnout, more than 70 percent of the county's approximately 2,500 voters have returned their ballots.

"Our turnouts are typically high, but that is really good," said Naedene Shearer, chief deputy auditor.

In the August primary, 95 percent of all votes were submitted by mail.

King County, the state's most populous county, has 1.1 million voters and is predicting an 85 percent turnout. Some other counties are predicting a turnout as high as 90 percent.

The average statewide general-election turnout since 1936 is 78.85 percent. The record turnout in modern times was 84.5 percent in 1944.

King County elections officials said they plan to be able to count all the expected 286,800 poll votes on Election Day, as well as 100,000 mail ballots. Following that, they expect to count 90,000 to 100,000 mail votes daily.

Reed has cautioned that voters shouldn't expect to know definitive results on Election Night because much of the state's vote is still outstanding, and because King County's results will come in slower than the rest of the state.

"Unless the outcome of the race is very lopsided, it could change as more ballots come in," he said.

Associated Press writer Shannon Dininny contributed to this report.