BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – You may want to avoid mailing in your ballot if you haven’t voted yet.
The Washington Secretary of State’s Office is now encouraging voters to place their ballots in an official drop box or hand deliver it to a county voting center to make sure it counts.
That’s because a new rule by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) clarifies that postmarks may not reflect the day the mail was first collected.
The Secretary of State’s Office says it can’t guarantee that ballots mailed in the final week leading up to the election will be postmarked on time.
It comes after top elections officials from across the country sent a letter to USPS after last month’s primary, warning of problems with the mail delivery system that threaten to disenfranchise some voters.
Ballots for this November’s general election must be returned by 8 pm on Tuesday, Nov. 4, in order to count.
The Whatcom County Auditor’s Office says it’s received roughly eight percent of ballots from registered voters as of Monday.
