WASHINGTON ELECTIONS
Late rejection was more common among mailed ballots in Washington’s primary
Ballots recorded as returned by mail were much more likely to be rejected as late than ballots recorded as returned through a drop box in Washington’s August 4, 2026 primary. The difference appeared across nearly every county.
Joshua Penner · September 11, 2026 August 4 primary · Final ballot records dated August 25
Mail requires an Election Day postmark; drop boxes close that evening
Washington requires mailed ballots to have an Election Day postmark. A ballot can arrive after Election Day and still count if it was postmarked on time. Drop boxes close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.
In the final August 25 ballot-status snapshot, 19,111 of 591,239 returns in the Mail category were marked Too Late, a rate of 3.23%. For Drop Box returns, 1,055 of 1,316,978 were marked Too Late, or 0.08%. The mail rate was 40.4 times the drop-box rate. Every record marked Too Late was also marked Rejected.
These figures describe recorded outcomes. They do not establish when voters mailed their ballots, why a ballot was late, or whether choosing a different return method would have changed its outcome.
| Return method | Returned | Too late | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 591,239 | 19,111 | 3.23% | |
| Drop Box | 1,316,978 | 1,055 | 0.08% |
Washington Secretary of State ballot-status report · Washington Secretary of State ballot return deadlines
Mail had higher late-rejection rates in 38 counties
Ferry County had no late records in either category. In every other county, the mail late-rejection rate exceeded the drop-box rate. The statewide difference was therefore not confined to a few counties.
All county counts and rates
| County | Mail returned | Mail late | Mail late % | Box returned | Box late | Box late % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adams | 938 | 57 | 6.08 | 1,574 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Asotin | 2,084 | 111 | 5.33 | 4,308 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Benton | 12,570 | 760 | 6.05 | 34,926 | 25 | 0.07 |
| Chelan | 7,546 | 447 | 5.92 | 16,983 | 17 | 0.10 |
| Clallam | 6,093 | 271 | 4.45 | 21,184 | 8 | 0.04 |
| Clark | 44,620 | 649 | 1.45 | 94,381 | 56 | 0.06 |
| Columbia | 339 | 8 | 2.36 | 953 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Cowlitz | 8,469 | 205 | 2.42 | 19,023 | 16 | 0.08 |
| Douglas | 3,216 | 178 | 5.53 | 7,611 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Ferry | 1,280 | 0 | 0.00 | 581 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Franklin | 4,760 | 370 | 7.77 | 8,916 | 2 | 0.02 |
| Garfield | 239 | 19 | 7.95 | 782 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Grant | 6,677 | 341 | 5.11 | 10,878 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Grays Harbor | 6,129 | 135 | 2.20 | 12,257 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Island | 7,604 | 243 | 3.20 | 23,045 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Jefferson | 5,755 | 83 | 1.44 | 10,184 | 0 | 0.00 |
| King | 159,222 | 3109 | 1.95 | 377,439 | 488 | 0.13 |
| Kitsap | 19,756 | 467 | 2.36 | 65,266 | 81 | 0.12 |
| Kittitas | 2,964 | 182 | 6.14 | 9,819 | 3 | 0.03 |
| Klickitat | 1,892 | 90 | 4.76 | 5,923 | 2 | 0.03 |
| Lewis | 10,072 | 683 | 6.78 | 15,554 | 2 | 0.01 |
| Lincoln | 2,669 | 30 | 1.12 | 1,049 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Mason | 6,171 | 253 | 4.10 | 14,120 | 1 | 0.01 |
| Okanogan | 5,544 | 333 | 6.01 | 6,719 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Pacific | 3,633 | 128 | 3.52 | 5,797 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Pend Oreille | 2,212 | 132 | 5.97 | 2,519 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Pierce | 55,169 | 1120 | 2.03 | 127,022 | 0 | 0.00 |
| San Juan | 2,154 | 92 | 4.27 | 4,936 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Skagit | 10,492 | 621 | 5.92 | 25,014 | 15 | 0.06 |
| Skamania | 1,029 | 12 | 1.17 | 3,139 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Snohomish | 53,878 | 2886 | 5.36 | 132,133 | 175 | 0.13 |
| Spokane | 62,323 | 1188 | 1.91 | 85,840 | 133 | 0.15 |
| Stevens | 7,993 | 591 | 7.39 | 6,100 | 8 | 0.13 |
| Thurston | 19,795 | 427 | 2.16 | 66,309 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Wahkiakum | 705 | 10 | 1.42 | 1,119 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Walla Walla | 4,710 | 337 | 7.15 | 11,590 | 10 | 0.09 |
| Whatcom | 17,238 | 605 | 3.51 | 56,079 | 8 | 0.01 |
| Whitman | 3,991 | 194 | 4.86 | 5,043 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Yakima | 19,308 | 1744 | 9.03 | 20,863 | 5 | 0.02 |
Washington Secretary of State ballot-status report · U.S. Census Bureau 2024 county boundaries
Nearly one in four qualifying precincts had mail late-rejection rates of at least 5%
The comparison includes 7,132 precincts with at least 25 Mail returns. Of those, 1,694, or 23.8%, met that rate. In 536 precincts, at least one in ten mailed returns was rejected as late.
The precinct pattern remained visible across minimum return counts
Changing the minimum number of Mail returns changes which precincts qualify. Across cutoffs ranging from 10 to 200 returns, roughly one-fifth to one-quarter of qualifying precincts had mail late-rejection rates of at least 5%. The strictest cutoff leaves only 240 precincts and describes a much narrower group.
Snohomish County’s mail late-rejection rates differed by ZIP prefix
Combining Mail and Non Standard Mail returns, Snohomish voters with 980xx ZIP codes had a late-rejection rate of 1.57%, compared with 7.37% for those with 982xx ZIP codes. That is a 4.71-fold difference. Signature-related rates were similar, at 0.29% and 0.26%, respectively.
The signature measure includes mismatched signatures, unsigned ballots, no signature on file and missing witness signatures. Voter ZIP prefixes do not establish postal routing, voter behavior or the cause of the difference.
Separate context: ballots in the November 2024 election
A federal election survey recorded 971,342 Washington ballots as unreturned and 25,861 as returned undeliverable. Unreturned ballots include people who chose not to vote, so that category is not a count of attempted votes. An undeliverable ballot does not establish whether its voter later obtained a replacement. These figures concern a different election and different measures; they are not evidence for the primary’s mail and drop-box comparison.
Election Assistance Commission 2024 EAVS, version 2 · EAVS codebook
Rates use returned ballots in each category
Statewide comparisons include all counties and use the exact Mail and Drop Box categories. Each rate divides late rejections by returned ballots in that category. Other return methods are separate, except in the stated Snohomish comparison.
Data and calculations
Download the complete analysis package
Seven charts, their data tables, the original headline script, supporting calculation code and source hashes. The voter-level source file is retrieved from the Secretary of State rather than redistributed in this download.
Reproduction instructions and source definitions · Earlier publication (source record)