VANCOUVER, Wash. (KOIN) — Oregon voters started turning in their ballots Thursday as election officials encourage people to vote as soon as they can.
Meanwhile, ballots in Washington will be mailed out to voters on Friday. More than 309,000 ballots were delivered to the regional post office in Clark County Thursday morning and were sent to local post offices.
Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey suggests voting early so you can confirm your ballot was counted.
“In the state of Washington we have a new statewide voter registration system called VoteWa.gov that people can go online and see the status of their ballot,” he said.
In Washington state, you have until October 26 to register online or by mail. You can register as late as election day and then vote in person. Ballot must be returned and postmarked by Election Day in Washington.
In Oregon, ballots must be received by 8 p.m. Election Day in order for them to count. Oregonians should expect to receive their ballots in the mail by the end of the week. Anyone who hasn’t received their ballot by Oct. 21 should contact their local election office.
Because of the pandemic, voters are encouraged to take their ballots to their closest drop site or put them in the mail to help limit large crowds at election offices. While votes won’t start being counted just yet, officials will start pre-processing ballots to verify a voter’s signature is authentic.
“That’s another reason to vote a little earlier: if there’s any trouble with your ballot — if you forget to sign the envelope — we have more time to work through those issues before it gets really close to election day,” said Tim Scott, the director of elections for Multnomah County.
If there is a problem with a signature, a notification letter will be sent to the respective voter who then has up to 14 days after the election to fix the issue.
Click here to track your ballot (Oregon)
Residents of Multnomah or Marion counties can also sign up for text alerts to be notified about when a ballot has been mailed, received and if it’s been accepted or challenged. In Multnomah County, 5,000 voters signed up for alerts on Wednesday.
Track your ballot — Marion County
Track your ballot — Multnomah County
