'In a hurry,' Washington state voters race to drop boxes two weeks ahead of Election Day

Drop boxes are open, and people around Washington state are out voting early. In King County, we are already seeing signs of record early turnout in a year marked by a lot of Election Day anxiety.

KUOW reporter Casey Martin has been out talking with voters.

Voters are feeling like they're in a hurry. Everyone I've talked to says they're really eager to get those ballots back. There's definitely just a sense of pressure out there at those drop boxes.

I went to a couple of the drop boxes in Kirkland, also in Redmond. People told me that, frankly, they're worried that if they mail their ballots, they won't arrive in time on election night.

The first person I talked to was Ngoc Kouzmitch, who was dropping off her ballot with her two young kids:

“So me, this is just me cutting out the middleman of USPS and just going straight for the ballot box. If I could bring it to the headquarters I would. But this is the best I have, and I trust the ballot boxes.”

She says she trusts the ballot box. She's voted by mail before, but this year, with all of the politics surrounding the postal service — a lot that we've heard from the president — she just feels more confident in the drop boxes, and she wanted to get that ballot in early.

King County is already processing ballots. Mine was counted today — I went online and checked. We won't get the results, of course, until election night. But all of the ballots that are successfully processed between now and election night will be officially counted.

Everyone in King County should have received their ballot by now. If you have not received your ballot, you should definitely call King County elections. They can get you a new replacement ballot. It's not an issue.

You can also track your ballot online — it's a really handy tool. It's at kingcounty.gov/elections. That's where I was eagerly following mine as it was progressing. You enter in your info, and you can watch at every stage of your ballot, from when it's mailed to you, to when your signature is accepted, to when it's officially counted. You can follow that all online now.

It’s a really handy tool, especially this year where people are feeling a little bit anxious, and they want to make sure, ‘Okay, my ballot is in and it has been counted?’

King County elections says, thankfully, none of the ballots in that [West Seattle] drop box were damaged [following a vandalism incident]. Obviously, a concern is fire protection. These are open 24 hours a day.

But, here are the specs on those friendly blue boxes you see. They are made of half inch-thick steel. They're bolted to concrete with steel bolts, and have multiple locking mechanisms. They weigh 1000 pounds. They do have flame retardant inside, and they are picked up, as you said, at least once or twice a day.

Overall, King County elections hasn't had issues with these, and thankfully —so far —no ballots have been vandalized or destroyed.

Like a lot of the country, early voting has been huge. In King County, we are past a quarter million ballots. That's just shy of 20% turnout so far. At this point in 2016, we were about half of that. So, already double where we are from just four years ago.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.