Maria Cantwell

OLYMPIA – Spokane County bucked a statewide trend as one of 10 counties that saw a drop in the number of ballots rejected in the August primary due to a late postmark, according to a study published by Sen. Maria Cantwell.

But with more than 4,000 additional ballots not counted this year because of a late postmark, Cantwell called on her Senate colleagues to hold hearings to investigate “why the President of the United States and the United States Postal Service are disenfranchising” some voters by not postmarking their ballots in time.

“Our report shows some troubling trends,” Cantwell said. “Ballots that voters believed they had mailed in time were rejected because they lacked a timely, verifiable postmark or arrived too late to be counted.”

The study provides a snapshot of the impact of the federal government’s efforts to influence and change when and how states can count mail-in ballots.

The analysis examined the number of ballots that were not counted because they were not postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day, and compared the data to the 2024 primary. Overall, the state saw a 32% increase in ballots rejected because they were not postmarked in time, despite the fact that an increasing number of voters are using ballot drop boxes to vote.

According to data from the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, 30.9% of ballots in the August primary this year were returned by mail, compared to 41.3% that were returned through the mail in 2024.

A majority of the ballots cast in the 2026 primary in Spokane County were returned to a drop box, with the percentage increasing from 46% in the 2024 primary to 58% this year. The number of rejected ballots in Spokane County decreased from 1,494 in 2024 to 1,321 this year.

While the rate can fluctuate, Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton said Friday “a lot of it” depends on the media attention an election receives.

“When people understand what they need to know and what their deadlines are, they do a really good job of getting their ballots in,” Dalton said.

Dalton pointed to the November 2024 presidential election, where 77.6% of voters returned their ballots but only 391 ballots were rejected, a rate she said was “stellar.”

“And it’s because it was in front of everybody 24 hours a day,” Dalton said.

Dalton said several factors likely contributed to the decrease in Spokane County voters who had their ballots rejected this year. The Spokane Complex fires, Dalton said, meant some voters were unable to vote at all.

The study attributes the statewide increase in rejected ballots to operational changes at the United States Postal Service, an agency that President Donald Trump has attempted to use to implement sweeping changes to electoral systems across the country that primarily use vote-by-mail.

The agency now requires that ballots be postmarked at a regional processing and distribution center, rather than a local post office. Ballots that are returned to a post office that is more than 50 miles from a distribution center are now only transported once a day, rather than twice a day.

According to the study, the transfer to a distribution center can take upwards of a week.

“The post office is taking your ballot as a piece of mail, but not stamping it that day,” Cantwell said. “They are waiting, and going to a distribution center and then later postmarking that, and may, thereby, be delaying your actual vote.”

Ballots that are returned in a county different than where a resident is registered to vote also saw extended delays. On average, it took 5.6 days for a ballot that was returned in a different county to be transferred to the correct county.

While many of the state’s most populous counties saw a decrease in rejected ballots, rural counties and counties in central Washington saw drastic increases. Mason County on the Olympic Peninsula experienced the largest increase by percentage, going from 60 ballots rejected to due to a late postmark in the 2024 primary to 258 this year, a 330 % increase.

Yakima County had the largest increase overall, with an additional 1,226 ballots not accepted this year compared to 2024, an increase of nearly 270%.

Across the state, the number of ballots not accepted due a late postmark increased from 16,131 in 2024 to 20,267 this year.

“The rates doubled in more than 19 counties,” Cantwell said.

Going forward, Dalton said the county auditor’s office will continue to advise voters to use drop boxes within a week of the election.

“For those people who absolutely have to use the mail, like you’re a college student living in Denver, Colorado, go to the post office and have it hand-canceled,” Dalton said.

Cantwell echoed the advice.

“Please drop your ballot in a ballot box provided by the local county if possible, if possible,” Cantwell said. “That is the key message No. 1.”

For voters who can’t travel to a ballot box, Cantwell said they should mail their ballot “as soon as you get it.”

The delay in ballot postmarks is part of a broader push by Trump and Republican lawmakers to restrict mail-in voting. While the changes to when ballots are postmarked took effect, other attempts have either been blocked or are paused as lawsuits work through the court system.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ballots arriving after Election Day can be counted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day in a case brought by the Republican National Committee.

In March, Trump signed an executive order which directed the Postal Service to establish a federal list of eligible voters and mandates that the agency only deliver or accept ballots to voters on the list, among other election-related measures.

Washington is among the states that have challenged the new rules, and a federal judge has blocked portions of the executive order, including ballot envelope design requirements and submitting voter data into a post office portal, from taking effect before the November election.

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani issued a preliminary injunction to block the plan, replacing a temporary order she previously issued. The federal government is expected to appeal the decision.

“As the court previously said, states’ compliance with this illegal order would be ‘practically impossible’ before the November elections given the unprecedented demands it would put on state and local elections officials,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement. “The chaos that would cause is exactly what Trump wants. That’s why we continue to fight for a fair and properly administered election.”

Although Washington’s ballots fit the criteria to be delivered by the Postal Service, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said last week they do not have a unique barcode that would allow them to be returned through the mail. With about two months until the election, Hobbs said there is not enough time to reprint ballots to fit the criteria.

“We don’t have the capability to do that. We are out of time,” Hobbs said. “We’re mailing on the 19th to our overseas voters, and on the 20th of October to everybody else. That’s five million ballots; we don’t have the ability to reprint those.”

While the Supreme Court ruled against a similar lawsuit last month because the Postal Service had yet to officially implement the new requirements, it has not ruled on the merits of the case, something Hobbs said is “good news.”

Like previous cases, Hobbs said he expects the new lawsuit will ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.