Ready to vote? Primary ballots are in the mail

Registered voters in Spokane County and around the state began receiving ballots in the mail today for the state’s top-two primary on Aug. 4.

Like many of the state’s more populous counties, Spokane has to divide the mailing up, so ballots for voters in Legislative Districts 3 and 4 were mailed Wednesday and those for Districts 6, 7 and 9 were sent Thursday.

Elections Manager Mike McLaughlin said the county mailed slightly more than 335,000 ballots for the primary. As soon as they started showing up in the mail, the elections office’s phones started ringing with questions, he said.

Some recent Washington residents were surprised they were mailed a ballot, not realizing that all voters in the state vote by mail.

Others wondered why they had candidates from all parties on their primary ballot. Washington voters don’t register by party, and the state primary is not a partisan election. The candidates with the most and second-most votes advance to the general election, regardless of party.

A few longtime residents who remembered when the state primary was held in September, which it was through 2006, wondered why their ballot arrived so early.

It’s a long ballot, with the second column on the front filled with the 36 candidates for governor, and the third column featuring the races for lieutenant governor, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor and attorney general.

But wait, that’s not all, as they say on some television commercials. The back of the ballot has statewide races for lands commissioner, superintendent of public instruction and insurance commissioner, as well as state legislative races.

Voters in county commissioner districts 1 and 2 – which together cover the eastern two-thirds of the county, along with parts of the city of Spokane – also have primaries for those posts. Under state law, county commissioners run in their district in the primary, but countywide in the general election.

Ballots can be mailed in the postage-paid envelope and will be counted as long as they are postmarked by Aug. 4. They can also be deposited in drop boxes located in public libraries and other places by 8 p.m. on election night.

Washington residents who are eligible to vote but have not yet registered can sign up online or by mail through July 27, and in person through Aug. 4 at the Elections Office.