The Problem with Mail Delivery By law, we must certify the election by a specific deadline. For the primary, that date was August 18, 2026, two weeks after Election Day. Any ballot that arrives after this date cannot be counted, even if it was mailed on time. We are seeing two main problems with the post office: * Slow Mail: Many people mailed their ballots well before Election Day, but the ballots sat in post office sorting centers for weeks. In one case, a ballot was mailed in late July but didn't reach our office until after the August 18 deadline. It took 19 days to arrive, so it could not be counted. * Ballots sent Between Counties: In Washington State, you can drop your ballot into any official drop box in the state. Other counties collect those ballots and mail them back to us using USPS Priority Mail. In the past, this worked well. But this year, mail sent on August 5 didn't reach us until August 24, six days after the deadline. So far, our office has received 70 valid ballots that arrived after the certification deadline. This has never happened before, and it means those votes could not be counted. One ballot took 19 days to reach us. What We Are Doing for November No voter should lose their vote when they’ve followed every rule. To fix this for the November election, we will no longer rely on the post office to send ballots between counties. Instead, our team will personally drive to neighboring counties to pick up and hand-deliver these ballots ourselves. Even though this costs extra money and time, it is necessary to make sure every vote counts.