Kitsap voters appear engaged, with registration, turnout totals high
With just days to go before Tuesday's election results are counted across the country, the numbers indicate that Kitsap residents are engaged with a hotly contested election.
The number of Kitsap County registered voters had hit a new high, with a turnout rate slightly ahead of what officials saw in 2016, the last presidential race in a non-pandemic year.
As of Thursday afternoon, the number of registered voters in Kitsap County was 195,708 and the number of total ballots received was 84,691, making the county's turnout rate 43.27% five days before the election day. The turnout rate is 3% higher than that at the same time in 2016, Steven Gardner, a spokesperson of Kitsap County Auditor said.
The numbers in 2016 were used for comparison rather than 2020, because people voted earlier due to the pandemic that year, when President Joe Biden topped President Donald Trump. Gardner called 2020's early voting an anomaly, and said the numbers in 2016 reflected a more traditional trend, Gardner explained.
"So we're ahead of 2016. We're not ahead of 2020," Gardner said.
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In 2020 a total of 159,710 ballots were cast in Kitsap, which was a significant increase from the 130,503 counted in 2016, when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.
In the past five presidential elections, the turnout rate in Kitsap County fell between 78.38% in 2016 and 86.43% in 2008, when President Barack Obama topped John McCain. The average turnout rate was 83.33%.
Kitsap County Auditor Paul Andrews said Thursday that between 10,000 and 11,000 ballots have been coming in each day over the past week to be stored at the county's new ballot processing center at the Port of Bremerton's industrial park. Totals will be announced on Tuesday night sometime after 8 p.m. by the auditor's office, after counting is complete.
As of Oct. 31, Kitsap County's cumulative ballot challenged rate was 2.42%, the third highest challenged rate besides 2.68% in Adams County and 2.44% in Stevens County, according to data from the Washington Secretary of State.
About 3,000 ballots that had been challenged were cleared after further review or after the county received updated signatures from the challenged voters, according to Andrews. Of the 1,200 that remain under a challenge, 300 ballots were unsigned and 900 are being checked for unmatched signatures, Andrews said. The auditor's office will contact voters for challenged ballots to resolve signature issues.
Ballots will be accepted through 8 p.m. on Tuesday through the mail or at one of the county's ballot drop locations, a list of which may be found at the county auditor's website. Three voting centers will also be open Saturday, Monday and Tuesday around the county, at the Kitsap County Administration Building (619 Division St., Port Orchard), the Marvin Williams Recreation Center (725 Park Ave., Bremerton) and the Poulsbo Fire Station (911 NE Liberty Road, Poulsbo). Residents are able to register to vote at any of those voting centers through election day, and may vote at a voting center if you lost your mailed ballot.
To verify that your vote has been received and accepted, use the Washington State Secretary of State's Voter Portal website.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Voter registration, turnout in Kitsap reaching new highs in 2024 race