It didn’t take long for Sequim voters to show how interested they are in the Feb. 9 special election.
With a $54 million school construction bond up for consideration, voters flooded the single ballot drop-off box in the Sequim Village Shopping Center in the JCPenney parking lot — so much so that it filled the maximum capacity, 1,400-ballot box to the brim by about noon on Jan. 23 — just three days after ballots went into the mail.
“I was expecting the box to be full by Sunday, so we already had a scheduled pickup on Saturday afternoon in place,” Clallam County Auditor Shoona Riggs said. “As soon as I was notified it was filled earlier on Saturday, we were able to immediately head to Sequim to empty the box. As is normal procedure, the box will be emptied every other day and checked every day to make sure it is not full.”
As soon as the election is over, Riggs said, the county plans to install a larger drop box that will hold up to 3,500 ballots.
Riggs reported what she called “an unusually high return rate” for the first weekend ballots were mailed.
“Typically on the first day of processing ballots we have an average return rate of approximately 5 percent, but with this election we jumped to almost 12 percent for the first day, between the drop boxes and mail returned over the weekend,” she said.
As of Tuesday, Feb. 2, the auditor’s office reports 10,065 of the 24,099 ballots for the special election — about 41.8 percent — have been returned.
Ballots went out to Sequim voters as well as voters in the Crescent School District for a maintenance and operations levy and capital projects levy.
Ballots are due to ballot drop boxes by 8 p.m. on Election Day (Feb. 9). Curbside ballot drop boxes require no postage.
A ballot box also is located at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
Voters who have not received their ballot or need a replacement ballot may visit www.clallam.net/elections and click the “MyVote” icon, call the Auditor’s Office at 417-2221, or come to the Auditor’s Office at 223 E. Fourth St., Suite 1, Port Angeles.
The election is certified by Feb. 19.
