Washington Governor Ferguson Urges Drop Box Voting in Olympia: 601 Boxes Statewide, Guard Assists 7 Counties, Thurston County Has Received 76,531 Ballots
Olympia, Thurston County, Washington — Governor Bob Ferguson and Thurston County Auditor Mary Hall personally dropped their ballots in an official drop box at an October 30 press conference at South Puget Sound Community College's Olympia campus, urging voters near Election Day to use drop boxes rather than mail, because postal delays could keep ballots from being postmarked by the 8 p.m. deadline on November 3 and thus from being counted.
Ferguson said mailed ballots must be postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day to count, and the closer to Election Day, the greater the uncertainty of mailing.
Washington has 601 ballot drop boxes, emptied regularly by county election staff and taken directly to local counting centers; damaging a drop box is a crime. Ferguson has offered National Guard support for election security to county auditors, and seven counties accepted. In Thurston County, Guard members are unarmed, out of uniform, report to the county auditor, and do not touch ballots or take part in counting.
As of October 29, Thurston County had received 76,531 ballots, a turnout rate of 35.67 percent. There are 64 voting centers statewide, two of them in Thurston County.
Source: GSM America
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：MK03165 Washington State Capitol (Olympia)。来源：Wikimedia Commons（Martin Kraft，CC BY-SA 4.0）
