EPHRATA — Prospective voters made up a steady line outside of the Elections Department at Grant County Courthouse on Monday, the day before Election Day. Last-minute registrations to vote were taken care of, while others stopped to drop off their ballots.

Michele Blondin, lead certified elections administrator, gave some figures for ballots received. As of about 2 p.m. Monday, she said, 28,656 ballots had been received; 28,473 of them had been accepted, and 183 had been challenged.

The elections office had received ballots from about 60 percent of the 47,596 registered voters, she said. With new people showing up every minute to register to vote, or turn in their ballot, those numbers would quickly change.

Ivy Johnson, of Moses Lake, stopped by to register to vote in the state of Washington after moving to the Basin from Tennessee. She said the process didn’t change much for her this year.

“It’s pretty simple; I just live in a different state now,” Johnson said.

Joses Pruneda, a retired member of the U.S Army, stopped by on Monday to register to vote and submit his ballot. Pruneda said he just happened to wait until the last minute this year, saying you can’t really wait much later than the day before Election Day.

He said he votes in every election.

“It’s just as important this year as it is every other year; it doesn’t make any difference,” Pruneda said. “I know it does for some people, but it’s no different this year than any other year. It’s just as important.”

Pruneda discussed serving in the Army in Germany around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Shortly after leaving the armed forces, while hitchhiking around Europe, he ran into a young man from the former East Germany who was working to make his way home to cast his vote.

“He said, ‘I have to get back to vote. We fought to vote,’” Pruneda said. “I’ll never forget that.”

As Pruneda waited patiently to fill out his own ballot, he added, “You’ve got to vote.”

Casey McCarthy can be reached via email at cmccarthy@columbiabasinherald.com.