Absentee ballots on the way; 700 pollworkers are needed soon

In a few days, voters who are signed up for absentee ballots for the primary election can start watching for them to arrive in their mailboxes.

King County election officials planned to mail the ballots yesterday, in keeping with the practice of sending them 18 days before an election – in this case, the Aug. 19 primary.

While that takes care of voting by mail, there still aren’t enough pollworkers for in-person voting, officials said this week.

The county elections department is trying to recruit 700 people to help man polling places in what will be one of the final elections before King County switches next year to an all-mail system of voting.

Until then, “workers are still needed to help ensure that poll voters can cast their vote on Election Day,” said Sherril Huff, county elections director. “This will be one of the final opportunities to work at the polls, and I urge anyone interested to get involved today.”

Poll workers will be paid $125 for their service on Election Day, which begins at 6 a.m. and ends when poll closing procedures are completed, around 9 p.m. The workers will undergo about three hours of paid, advance training.

Huff said recruitment efforts have been stepped up in the hope of having a back-up workforce to ensure that all available positions are filled.

Huff said groups or individuals interested in serving as a poll worker can call the Poll Worker Coordination Office at (206) 296-1606. Information is also available at http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/.

Meanwhile, officials noted that citizens planning to vote by absentee ballot can check the county’s voter guide lookup feature at www.kingcounty.gov/elections to verify that they’re registered to vote by mail and are eligible to vote.

Voters should allow at least five days for in-county and 10 days for out-of-county mailed ballots to arrive, officials said.

To count in the election’s results, ballots must be signed and postmarked or delivered to the King County elections office by election day. Voters may also return their absentee ballots to their nearest polling place.

Additional information is available from the elections office at (206) 296-8683 and elections@kingcounty.gov.

The county has more than 1 million registered voters, of whom about 62 percent have regularly vored by mail. There are 396 polling places countywide.

The general election will be in November.