County predicts 82% voter turnout

By Susan Gilmore
Seattle Times staff reporter

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King County is poised to have the largest election turnout in a decade, said Dean Logan, director of the county Elections Office.

Logan predicts 82 percent of King County voters will cast ballots Tuesday. The highest was in 1992, when turnout was 83.6 percent. An 82 percent turnout would match that of 1960.

Statewide, Secretary of State Sam Reed said there could be record voter turnout on Tuesday. He is predicting an 84 percent turnout, the highest since World War II. He said the record turnout was 84.5 percent in 1944.

King County has 1,082,000 registered voters, and about 60 percent of them will be voting by absentee ballot, Logan said. He predicts there will be 370,000 votes cast at the polls this year and 520,000 by absentee ballots.

Logan also said his office has caught up with the thousands of last-minute voter registrations and all names will be in the poll books. He said each voter was mailed a voter-registration card, detailing his or her polling place, but it is possible that new voters won't receive the cards by Election Day.

To find the polling place, either call the Elections Office (206-296-8683) or check on the King County Elections Web site, www.metrokc.gov/elections/.

He said reports that major political parties have attorneys ready to investigate problems at polling places will have no effect on voting. Logan said he welcomes them and doesn't expect them to uncover any abnormalities in voting.

These attorneys won't be able to challenge voters Tuesday; only poll workers are authorized to question voters on Election Day. Complaints will be investigated after the election, Logan said.

A questioned ballot will be treated as a provisional ballot. Those are issued to voters who show up at polling places other than those where they would normally vote. Provisional ballots will be investigated in the 15-day canvassing period after the election.

Logan said in the primary King County issued 5,700 provisional ballots, and 90 percent were verified and counted. In the 2000 election, he said, the county issued 17,000 provisional ballots and 78 percent were counted.

If a provisional-ballot voter wants to find out whether or not his vote was counted, he can match up the number on the ballot receipt with ballots that have been counted. The information will be posted on the King County Elections Web site.

Logan said King County has registered 75,000 new voters since the September primary, and processing those applications meant the county had to hire about 300 temporary workers to help.

The registrations this year are a 40 percent increase over the same 10-month period leading up to the November 2000 election.

It's too late to register to vote in this election.

But those registered still can pick up absentee ballots for Tuesday's election at the Elections Office in the King County Administration Building, 500 Fourth Ave., Room 553, Seattle. The office will be open today from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Monday it will remain open until 6 p.m.

Susan Gilmore: 206-464-2054 or sgilmore@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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