Early primary-election ballot returns for the Aug. 4 primary election are arriving at the Snohomish County auditor’s office in Everett at a pace that would lead to a final turnout in the estimated range of 25-26 percent.
Elections officials base their estimates on turnouts in recent primaries in odd-numbered years.
County Elections Manager Garth Fell said Monday that he expected a big increase in the ballot-return rate posted Tuesday morning because it included ballots left over the weekend at drop boxes in Edmonds, Lynnwood and nine other places around the county.
South Snohomish County ballots had arrived through Tuesday at a slightly higher rate than the countywide average.
Ballot return statistics posted Tuesday morning showed that voters in Edmonds School District No. 15 had a ballot-return rate of 9.12 percent, compared to a countywide average of 9.09 percent.
School District 15 includes Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Woodway, unincorporated areas around those cities, and most of Brier.
Edmonds, Lynnwood, Woodway and nearby areas of County Council 3 had an early return rate of 9.37 percent.
Early return rates have been held down by a rate of only 8.08 percent in the city of Lynnwood. Lynnwood had the low early-return rate despite having the fullest primary ballots in the area, with two city council positions, a school board position, a county council position and the position of county executive all on Lynnwood ballots.
All of those return rates had increased by nearly two percentage points from the Monday rates, but Fell doesn’t expect another significant increase until the day before election day.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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