Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Wednesday 10 OctOber 2018
Want election results? On West Coast, patience is required

By RACHEL LA CORTE day.
Associated Press Wise said that a new tabu-
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — If lation system that came
control of the U.S. House online in 2017 has helped
comes down to any of the increase the number of
competitive congressional meaningful results they can
races in Washington state post in the days after the
and California, the nation election.
might have to wait days to For the August primary, the
learn the outcome. county posted over half
In both of those states, vot- of the 557,000 votes cast
ers can put their ballots in on election night. With the
the mail as late as Elec- new system, the day-after
tion Day, meaning the fi- update increased to 45,000
nal votes do not typically ballots.
reach election officials until But it still takes about a day
several days later. to go through the entire
"I could see a scenario process, so the bulk of bal-
where we're waiting a lots that are brought in from
week or so to get results," across the county's drop
said Todd Donovan, a po- boxes on election night, in
litical science professor at In this June 5, 2018, file photo, election workers Heidi McGettigan, Margaret Wohlford, and David addition those still arriving
Western Washington Uni- Jensen, unload a bag of ballots brought in a from a polling precinct to the Sacramento County via mail, will not be reflect-
versity. "The unfortunate Registrar of Voters office in Sacramento, Calif. ed immediately.
thing is, you take longer Associated Press Even states like Colorado,
and people are going to where ballots must be in
think something wrong is than three days after that. While more than 20 states replace retiring Republican by Election Day, instanta-
going on, when in fact, In past elections, some allow certain elections to Rep. Dave Reichert. Re- neous results are not guar-
when you take longer, close California races have be held by mail, only Wash- publican-held seats in the anteed.
you're more likely to have not been called for days. In ington, Oregon and Colo- state's 5th and 3rd Districts, Lynn Bartels, a spokeswom-
more accurate results." its June primary, more than rado conduct all elections in eastern Washington and an for the Colorado Secre-
Washington is one of just 67 percent of Californians by mail. Colorado and southwestern Washington, tary of State, said that even
three states that conduct voted by mail. Oregon both require that are also being fiercely con- with that firm deadline,
all elections by mail, and Ballots in Washington state ballots — whether they tested by Democrats this mailed ballots require more
it's the only one of those will be mailed to voters next are mailed or dropped off year. time because of the proce-
three that allows ballots to week. Three of the state's — be received by elec- Julie Wise, King County's dures that need to be fol-
be postmarked on Elec- 10 U.S. House races are be- tions officials no later than elections director, said she lowed to process them.
tion Day. The system usu- ing watched nationally as Election Day in order to be and her staff are ready for "It's not like you pull a lever
ally leaves about half of Democrats eye potential counted. what will be a busy week. and it all gets tabulated,"
the vote outstanding at the gains that could determine Washington state's 39 "There's no system that is she said. Washington's sys-
end of the night, making it control of the chamber. counties all post their initial perfect, but vote-by-mail is tem ensures that the state's
impossible to quickly de- The party needs a net gain results after 8 p.m. on elec- the strongest type of elec- voters are not disenfran-
termine the winner of close of 23 seats nationwide to tion night. Many counties tion system in the country," chised by mail delays and
races. win back the House. do daily updates after that, she said. "We have a paper allows them to consider
In California, which has According to the National but because of the num- trail for everything." their options longer, Wise
more than half a dozen Conference of State Legis- ber of steps involved in bal- During the 2016 general said. "I think we have a bet-
competitive races in GOP- latures , 37 states and the lot verification — including election, more than 1 mil- ter democracy when we
held districts, voters have District of Columbia offer sorting, signature verifica- lion ballots were cast in King have more people par-
the option of balloting by some type of early voting, tion and assessment of bal- County. The county posted ticipating," she said. "If we
mail. Those ballots too must and 27 states and D.C. of- lots for extraneous marks results for over 615,000 bal- have to wait a day or two
be postmarked by Election fer "no-excuse" absentee — the updates can feel lots on election night, and longer than others, I think
Day and received no later voting. painfully slow for candi- about 30,000 the following that's well worth it."q
dates locked in close races
and the media organiza-
tions covering them.
"Fast is good, and I guaran-
tee you that there's noth-
ing more that the counties
want than to get the results
out quickly," said Washing-
ton Secretary of State Kim
Wyman. "But it's more im-
portant to make sure that
they're accurate."
King County, by far the
state's most populous, is the
largest of five counties vot-
ing in the 8th Congressional
In this photo taken Sept. 19, 2018, an election worker reviews the District, a closely watched In this photo taken Sept. 19, 2018, ballot drop boxes are stored
Vietnamese-language final proof for the general election ballot open seat where Republi- for future use in a warehouse area of the King County Elections
at the King County Elections office in Renton, Wash. can Dino Rossi and Demo- office in Renton, Wash.
Associated Press crat Kim Schrier are vying to Associated Press