A surge of late voting brings turnout in Spokane County to normal levels

About a week before Tuesday’s election, Spokane County Vicky Dalton said the then-voter turnout of 8% of ballots returned was “incredibly low.”

“It’s a little scary,” she said last week. “We should have a lot more in.”

But a late voting surge brought voter turnout on par with recent even-year primaries when Washington voters consider state legislative races.

Dalton said voter turnout for even-year primaries usually pans out to somewhere in the range of 34 to 50%.

The Spokane County Elections Office reported turnout had reached 39.6% considering all ballots received as of Thursday.

Mike McLaughlin, the Spokane County Elections Manager, said there’s a rush of ballots that arrive at the end of the voting cycle.

“They’re holding onto their ballots to vote late,” McLaughlin said.

Those ballot return rates at the beginning of last week were “a little bit behind 2020,” McLaughlin said. That year, almost 80,000 ballots were received from Monday to Wednesday during election week.

“Around 40% to 50% of people, their ballots are received in the last five days,” said Jim Hedemark, the campaign consultant for Michael Schmidt, a candidate for the state House in Spokane Valley who lost in Tuesday’s primary.

Ben Stuckart, a candidate for the state House in the 3rd Legislative District in Spokane, said that in the last couple of cycles, half the votes are being counted after election day.

The turnout is down significantly compared to the previous primary that included a governor race. But that turnout – 50.5% – is the highest in an even-year primary in Spokane County in at least 20 years.

The 39.6% of ballots returned this year is normal for an even-year primary election.

Yet politicians would still like to see more.

“I want as many people voting as possible so at least the outcome reflects the majority of the folks who live in our district,” said Natasha Hill, an attorney who is in a close race that’s still too close to call against Stuckart. “That’s what a representative democracy is all about.”

State Rep. Timm Ormsby, running uncontested for his seat in the 3rd Legislative District, said “turnout is really disappointingly low.”

The candidates in the only contested Spokane County commissioner race both said more needs to be done to get voters engaged before the general election.

Incumbent Al French and his challenger Molly Marshall said they were perplexed by the low voter turnout in the primary.

“It is surprising how low the voter turnout is,” French said. “That is disappointing with all the races and some really good candidates in those races.”

Marshall posited that voters may have been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of races and candidates and the associated research.

“I think there were so many races on the ballot I think it was intimidating for people, or people just didn’t know who to pick,” Marshall said.

County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner, who was the top vote getter in the race for Congress in Eastern Washington, shares a similar sentiment.

“I think one of the reasons voter turnout was lower than we would have liked in the primary was because there were so many candidates on the ballot and there were a lot of unknown candidates,” he said. “I think the turnout will improve significantly in the general election, one, just because every race is gonna have two candidates and the voters will know more about each candidate.

“Also, there’s very important initiatives on the ballot.”

Stuckart agrees, adding that turnout will increase because the presidential election is so heated.

To Bajun Mavalwala, the campaign manager for Bernadine Bank, who lost her primary race for Congress, the political climate is more dire.

“Generally, primaries have a lower turnout than general elections, but this was badly low,” he said.

Mavalwala said he’s concerned about the impacts on democracy and democratic processes.

“We live in a country that the participation of the electorate is critical to maintaining our freedoms,” he said.

Mavalwala claims that the low turnout is because of a political process that rewards negativity and manipulation. He said that the system keeps voters away from the polls.

“They’re hearing nonsense,” Mavalwala said. “Which is mostly to keep them away from voting or to misinform them, and then we wonder why there’s a low voter turnout.”

If numbers are examined, he said, “one of the things you’re going to see there is that the largest voting bloc are the oldest people.”

Mavalwala said that’s because they know what happens when they don’t participate.

“It’s not just a right to vote, it’s a responsibility,” Mavalwala said. “It is the responsibility of the electorate to vote.”

Reporter Nick Gibson contributed to this article.