SEATTLE — Ballots dated before the Nov. 7 general election return deadline sat uncounted in one Seattle mail drop of box voters complained to Washington's King County. Now, a week after the deadline, at least 85 ballots are being added to the count as some Seattle City Council candidates sit within a few hundred votes of their opponents.
Voters who dropped off ballots at a mailbox on 15th Avenue East and East John Street became concerned when their ballots were not counted when they checked the King County Elections ballot tracker. After voters raised the issue with the county, they were told that an outbound mailbox had not been cleared since mid-October.
"After learning of this, we immediately reached to USPS to look into what happened," Halei Watkins, communications director for King County Elections, wrote in an email Tuesday.
According to Watkins, the county was unaware of any issue until voters reached out Monday. Then, USPS checked the box and delivered 85 ballots to the county on Tuesday to be processed.
While the ballots missed getting postmarked by Election Day, state law allows the elections office to check bar codes and signature dates to determine whether votes were cast in time.
"All 85 ballots that were received at our office [Tuesday] feature signature dates of Election Day, or before, which means those ballots will continue through processing with signature verification being the next step," Watkins said. "Those ballots will be able to be counted despite the issue with the mailbox and we're so glad that we were able to get this worked out so we can count all eligible ballots."
King County voters can track their ballots on the county's website.
While the additional ballots will likely be counted and are not, by themselves, enough to swing any race, some people are concerned that there could be a broader issue of uncounted ballots in tight Seattle City Council races, separated by just a few hundred votes each.
Ron Davis, who is behind in the race for Seattle's District 4 council seat by just 303 votes, said he's concerned that there could be additional ballots in unchecked mailboxes since it took voters catching the mistake.
"And if there are blocks of missing ballots like this, I would appreciate if King County Elections and USPS would notify the public and campaigns rather than us having to find out about it through anonymous tips," Davis, who has not yet conceded his race, said Tuesday.
Davis trails Maritza Rivera, former deputy director of Seattle's Office of Arts & Culture, in the closest of three City Council races separated by fewer than 500 votes. While mail-in ballots have reduced to a slow trickle in recent days, the margins are tight enough that campaigns are working to tie up loose ends like unresolved signature challenges, but not so close that any district currently triggers a recount.
The District 2 race, where incumbent Tammy Morales leads challenger Tanya Woo, and District 7 race, where newcomer Bob Kettle leads incumbent Andrew Lewis, remain too close to call. The Seattle Times has called the other four council races.
A spokesperson for USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
The Postal Service has been front and center in vote counting throughout Washington state this week following a series of envelopes with white powder — some including fentanyl — mailed to and disrupting ballot counting at five election offices last week.
Additional counted ballots are expected to be shared by the county Tuesday afternoon.
