Washington State voters have been able to vote by mail for over 40 years, and it’s been the state standard since 2011. Registering to vote is easy—all eligible voters over 18 years old can register at votewa.gov. Once you’re registered, ballots for each election show up at your mailing address and within just a few minutes you can fill out your ballot, place it back into its envelope, and send it on its way.
With the presidential election coming up, I’ve been curious about the vote-by-mail system and wanted to learn more about how it works. What happens after my ballot is filled out? How does it get counted? Who ensures the results are accurate and fair? To learn more, I paid a visit to the Spokane County Elections Office earlier this fall.
It takes a lot of work by many skilled professionals to ensure our election is possible. You can see the Path of the Ballot in Washington State at votewa.gov, or take a tour of our local election office in our “How Does Voting Work?” episode of Let’s Explore Spokane.