Governor Ferguson's Weekend Message to Voters: Use a Drop Box, Not the Mail
After 20,000 on-time primary ballots went uncounted over postmark delays, Governor Bob Ferguson is telling voters the drop box — not the mailbox — is the safe route to Tuesday.
With the mail no longer a safe bet, Washington's governor spent part of Friday doing what he wants every voter to do this weekend: he returned his ballot to a drop box.
Governor Bob Ferguson and Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall returned their own ballots at a drop box event at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, and urged voters statewide to use drop boxes rather than the mail in the final days before Tuesday's election.
The reason is a postmark problem. In Washington's August primary, about 20,000 ballots that were mailed on time were not postmarked before Election Day and could not be counted. Under state law, a mailed ballot counts only if it is postmarked by Election Day — a step the Postal Service does not always complete the day a ballot is dropped in the box.
The infrastructure for the safer route is extensive: 601 ballot drop boxes statewide and 64 voting centers, per the Secretary of State's office. Drop boxes close at 8 p.m. sharp on Tuesday, November 3.
Election security is running in parallel. Ferguson has offered counties voluntary National Guard assistance with election security, and seven counties — including Thurston — accepted, with Guard personnel in a support role. The offer follows an incendiary device planted in a Clark County ballot box two years ago that destroyed hundreds of ballots.
The governor's advice, reduced to a sentence: this weekend, find a drop box.
