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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
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Spokane County election turnout nearing 40%

A steady stream of cars line up at the North Spokane Library on Hawthorne Road to drop off their ballots on Nov. 8, 2022. At times there were upwards of 30 cars lined down the block to take their turn delivering their votes in the local and national elections. Spokane Public Library officials reported that there was heavy usage at library ballot drop boxes on Tuesday. (Christopher Anderson/For The Spokesman-Review)
By Emily White emilyw@spokesman.com(509) 459-5444

On Election Day, a long line of cars full of people waiting to slip their ballots into the library’s white ballot box stretched from the South Hill Library through the parking lot and onto the street, blocking the library entrance.

In preparation for Election Day, state and county election officials warned people not to drop ballots in the mail in the last several days before the election in fear that new U.S. Postal Service policy could mean that ballots wouldn’t be postmarked in time.

Instead, officials encouraged voters to use official ballot drop boxes at public libraries and other government buildings.

Considering ballots received as of Thursday, 39.5% of Spokane County voters returned theirs. That’s higher than the most recent similar election year in 2021 (with no or few races for state or federal offices and no race for Spokane mayor), when the county’s turnout was 36.8%.

As of Wednesday, 52.7% of the returned ballots in Spokane County were collected from ballot boxes and 47.3% were delivered by mail.

“The bags were pretty full when they came in at the end of the night on Election Day,” Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said.

It is typical for Spokane County to see a little more votes cast through ballot boxes, especially on Election Day, said Spokane County Elections Manager Mike McLaughlin.

“Everything was normal and on track for what we expected,” McLaughlin said.

Ballot boxes at libraries in Spokane had a significant turnout on Election Day, said Alina Murcar, Spokane Library spokesperson.

“We always have fantastic participation at library ballot boxes,” Murcar said. “I think it’s a great resource for the community to have ballot boxes at our library locations. Having them all spread throughout Spokane is a fantastic resource for people who are out and about already.”

The Secretary of State’s website will be updated with more votes on Friday night, McLaughlin said. He anticipates around 1,000 more ballots will be added to the current count.

Ballots that were mailed in late are also beginning to arrive, McLaughlin said. On Thursday, McLaughlin said there were 300 late ballots mailed to the elections office. McLaughlin was not sure whether the county would see an increase or decrease in late mailed in ballots this year.

“We’ll know more on Friday about how many lates we have. Hopefully that number is down,” McLaughlin said.