Ballot returns near 30 percent mark

Next Tuesday’s election is 29.9 percent finished. Whitman County Elections Supervisor Debbie Hooper reported Tuesday afternoon that voters had returned 6,512 ballots to her office. That total represents just under a third of the 21,789 ballots mailed out to registered voters.

The registration count is up from the 20,134 voters who received ballots in the 2008 presidential election and up from the 19,376 ballots sent out for the August primary.

The registration count swelled Monday on the deadline day for in-person registration for the Nov. 6 general election. Elections technician Karen Bafus said 31 new voters registered at the county elections office in Colfax Monday and another 11 registered at Pullman City Hall.

Election staff has been collecting ballots from Pullman City Hall and from three new drop boxes; behind the elections office in Colfax, by Pullman City Hall and on the campus of Washington State University.

Bafus added she had sent dozens of ballots back to voters in the south tower of Washington State University’s Stevenson Hall. Many were returned by the postal service, she said, because the ballots were not specifically addressed for the south tower. More than 60 were returned Tuesday.