EPHRATA — While Grant County's initial voter turnout appeared to be among the lowest in Washington state following Primary Election Day, local election officials say the numbers do not tell the full story yet. 

According to Aug. 6 preliminary figures from the Washington Secretary of State, Grant County had 52,957 registered voters and 11,867 ballots counted as of the latest update, resulting in a turnout rate of 22.41%.  

That places Grant County near the bottom of the state's 39 counties, ahead of only Benton County at 20.57% and slightly below neighboring counties including Franklin at 25.54% and Yakima at 23.59%.  

But Grant County Elections Administrator Rebecca Pettingill said the county still has thousands of ballots left to process and expects turnout to increase significantly before certification. 

"I wouldn’t say disappointed just yet," Pettingill said. "We're still counting plenty of ballots on hand." 

Pettingill said Grant County is tracking relatively close to its 2022 primary election performance when compared to the same point in the counting process. 

"The 2022 return was 18,000, and we're already at 13,000 right now," she said. "We have at least 3,400 ballots still on hand to process." 

That would push the county's ballot total to roughly 16,500 votes, bringing turnout closer to previous election cycles. Election officials also expect additional ballots to arrive through the mail before the certification deadline. 

"We always want a higher return rate than before," Pettingill said. "But we're more than happy to get at least a really close number to what we had before, that we're not going downhill." 

 Last-minute voters flooded ballot boxes 

Rather than seeing fewer voters participate, Pettingill believes many voters simply waited until the last minute to return their ballots. 

"The turnout has been just later than normal, not necessarily less," she said. 

Election staff had counted all ballots in their possession by 10 a.m. on Election Day before receiving reports that two county ballot drop boxes were overflowing, Pettingill said.  

"One of those boxes we had emptied the day before, and one of those boxes we had emptied the Friday before," Pettingill said. "In a matter of 24 to 40 hours, people were filling those boxes at the last minute." 

That surge created a backlog that election workers have continued processing throughout the week. 

How ballot counting works 

Pettingill outlined a multi-step process that election workers follow to ensure every ballot is accurately tracked and counted. 

The first step is receiving ballots either through the mail or from official ballot drop boxes. Ballots are kept grouped according to where they were collected. 

"We want to know where these ballots are coming from so we can kind of keep some totals on how popular certain boxes are," Pettingill said. 

Election workers then organize ballots into bundles before moving to signature verification, where each voter's signature is compared against the signature on file. 

"Once in a while, people will sign their spouse's ballot and things like that," Pettingill said. "That's where we kind of figure out what's going on." 

Ballots with signature issues are set aside for additional review. Once signatures are verified, workers remove ballots from secrecy envelopes and reconcile the number of envelopes with the number of ballots received. 

The final step is scanning ballots into the election system. 

"By this point, there is no name. It's all private," Pettingill said. "There's no names on these particular ballots because we separated them from the envelopes." 

After scanning, ballots are securely stored while results are tabulated and published during scheduled updates. 

"There's many different spots in between where we're double and triple checking that things are verified, things are accurate, and that we're accountable for every ballot we receive," Pettingill said. 

Signature challenges remain 

One issue election officials have seen this year is an unusually high number of challenged signatures. 

"We had a higher than what we've seen before number of people who we've had to challenge because their signatures didn't match what we had on file for them," Pettingill said. 

Some voters printed their names instead of signing their ballots, while others may have signatures that changed over time. 

When a signature question arises, voters receive mail notifications and automated phone calls asking them to contact the Elections Office to verify their identity. Ballots remain on hold until the issue is resolved. 

Pettingill emphasized that the robocalls are legitimate. 

"It's not a scam," she said. "If they could please call us back and verify their info, it would help us a ton." 

Voters can also check the status of their ballot through VoteWA.gov. 

Mickey Mouse slows things down 

Pettingill said voters can help election workers by carefully following ballot instructions and avoiding unnecessary write-ins. 

One common issue occurs when voters write "abstain" or fictional characters in write-in spaces rather than simply leaving the space blank. 

"We've seen characters or movie star names in place in the write-in, like Tom Cruise or Mickey Mouse," she said. 

Those ballots must be manually reviewed by election staff through a process known as adjudication. 

"There's nothing wrong with being silly," Pettingill said. "But it does create extra work." 

Because adjudication must be completed before daily results are released, excessive write-ins can slow the counting process. 

"The more ballots we have to adjudicate, the less ballots we can actually count in a day," she said. 

Building confidence in elections 

As ballot counting continues, Pettingill encouraged residents with questions about the process to visit the Elections Office, watch the county's livestream, or follow the daily updates posted online. 

"We would rather people come in and be informed and see the process than spread rumors or misinformation about what we do and how we do it," she said. 

For voters who chose not to participate in the primary election, Pettingill said voting remains one of the most direct ways residents can influence their communities. 

"If you're looking for a change in your community, voting is one of the best ways to make that change," she said. 

    Grant County is second from the bottom in initial voter turnout for the 2026 primary election with only 22.41 percent of voters participating. However, elections officials said ballots were turned in later this year, and the turnout is close to 2022.