PORT ORCHARD — The 2020 election resulted in the highest voter turnout across the United States in more than a century. The same can’t be said for Kitsap County.

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Voter turnout in Kitsap reached 83.8% this year, according to the county’s official election results, which were certified by the Kitsap County Auditor on Tuesday morning. That’s up from 2016, but it still falls well short of the county’s high mark in the 2008 election, when 87% of registered voters cast a ballot.

Even still, Kitsap surpassed turnout across the country, which hit more than 65% and broke the nation's previous record. And, with 159,710 ballots cast this election, Kitsap far exceeded its highest total ballot count, even if its turnout rate ultimately fell short.

Heading into election day, the Kitsap County Auditor’s Office predicted that Kitsap may, too, shatter turnout records and possibly exceed 90%. But Kitsap Auditor Paul Andrews said voters' habits were a bit different during the COVID-19 pandemic: more people voted early, but fewer ballots came on Election Day.

“What we saw in this election is people just voted early. They knew who they were going to vote for and they got their ballots filled out and turned in,” he said. “But it slowed down a whole lot as we got closer and closer to Election Day.”

Over the past two decades, Kitsap has generally matched and more often exceeded Washington state’s turnout rates.

In previous elections, Andrews said about half of ballots come before and the other half come on Election Day of the days following. This year, more than 86% of ballots were cast before that Tuesday.

Another trend during the pandemic? More people preferred using the county’s ballot drop boxes rather than mailing back their ballot — which may have reflected people’s concerns about the Trump administration’s changes to the United States Postal Service leading up to the election. About 75% of ballots came through drop boxes, with only 25% returned through the mail. In a typical year, that split is about 50-50, Andrews said.

In the end, President-elect Joe Biden won Kitsap decisively, with 56.9% of the vote, compared with 38.8% for President Donald Trump. Other races also weren’t very close, with incumbents down the ballot winning by wide margins. In the 23rd Legislative District, that meant wins for Democrat state lawmakers, while Republican representatives prevailed in the 26th and 35th districts.

Most ballots were counted in the days following Election Day. In the weeks since then, the auditor’s office has been working to screen ballots that may have some problems — such as an issue with a signature — and to allow voters to rectify them. There’s also some other housekeeping work, like duplicating email ballots from voters in the military or living outside the country. “That takes some additional time,” Andrew said.

But Andrews said the election overall went off without a hitch. “Everything went really smoothly for us,” he said, crediting the votewa.gov system, which allowed voters to check the status of their ballot online. “All of that made the process work well and build confidence among voters.”

Now certified, Kitsap’s election results are passed onto the Washington Secretary of State, which will certify the state’s final results by Dec. 3.

Austen Macalus is the Kitsap Sun's social services reporter — covering health care, homelessness and how programs are serving people living in poverty. He can be reached at austen.macalus@kitsapsun.com or 360-536-6423.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Election results show Kitsap voter turnout falls short of record levels

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