Washington state records worst general election turnout. Here’s how Whatcom County compares
Washington state recorded its lowest ever voter turnout rate for any general election this year.
Voter turnout reached just 36.4% for the Nov. 7 general election, according to data from the Washington Secretary of State’s Office. That means more than 3 million of the state’s 4.8 million registered voters did not participate.
It was the third time in the past eight years that the state has set a new record low turnout percentage. The previous record lows were 37.1% in 2017 and 38.5% in 2015. In 2021, the last odd-year election, the data shows the state recorded 39.4% voter turnout.
Odd-year elections focus on only on local candidates and issues and see less turnout than even-year elections when state and federal matters are on the ballot. For comparison, the state recorded 63.8% voter turnout in the 2022 general election and 84.1% in the 2020 general election.
Columbia County saw the highest turnout at 55.9%, and it was followed by Whatcom County at 51.3%.
The counties with the worst general election turnout this year included Yakima County at 25.8%, Clark County at 26.7% and Franklin County at 27.7%.
For its part, Thurston County recorded 39.4% voter turnout among its 196,717 registered voters, making it 22nd out of 39 counties on the list from lowest to highest turnout.
Notably, the populous Pierce and King counties had lower turnout than Thurston County. Pierce County ranked seventh for lowest turnout with 30.4% while King County ranked 20th with 37.3%.
What can be done to improve turnout?
The last six odd-year cycles represent the most of the worst turnouts Washington has ever seen, said Andrew Villeneuve, founder and executive director of Northwest Progressive Institute, in a news release.
However, Villeneuve also pointed out that the last three even-year general elections have seen either near-record turnout or decent turnout.
“The growing disparity in turnout between odd and even years is primarily due to election fatigue,” Villeneuve said. “Voters are telling us they don’t want to vote up to four times a year, every year. They want a break from electoral politics. They’d rather vote on local positions at the same time they fill state and federal ones.”
NPI is a left-wing social welfare non-profit that analyzes voter turnout data among other matters and advocates for reforms. One solution NPI is pushing is Senate Bill 5723, a new law that would allow cities and towns to switch their elections to even years if they want to.
State Sen. Javier Valdez, a Democrat who represents the 46th Legislative District, introduced the bill during the 2023 legislative session. That bill remained in the Senate Rules committee and didn’t get a floor vote.
Some people have doubts about the proposal because it would increase workloads for county auditor offices and significantly lengthen ballots, The Seattle Times reported.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs told the Times he opposes moving elections to even years because it could “drown out” local races. He said counties with small budgets might even opt to cut their election workforce.
