by F. Milene Henley

Have you received your ballot for the Nov. 6 election?

All ballots were mailed on Oct. 16. Yet an extraordinary number of late and misdirected ballots have been reported to the Elections Office this election. Part of the problem was explained last week when the Seattle Post Office acknowledged that a pallet of ballots had been incorrectly delivered. Those ballots were returned to Seattle and re-delivered late the same week. Most of the San Juan Island ballots showed up at the Friday Harbor Post Office on Monday, Oct. 22, and most voters reported having received theirs by last Wednesday.

We are still hearing scattered reports of undelivered ballots, however. We are hopeful that most ballots will catch up with voters in the next day or two, but we do not want to count on it. So if your ballot is still missing, please contact the Elections Office. We will mail you a replacement ballot, and/or direct you to an online location from which you can download a ballot.

For those who have already called regarding missing ballots, the Elections Office has already mailed replacement ballots. We have heard from some people that they received their replacement and their original ballots on the same day. If that happens to you, vote either ballot, but do it soon.

The county is in its second election with prepaid postage. There is some anecdotal evidence that prepaid postage is causing slower delivery. If you plan to use your prepaid postage envelope, please try to mail your ballot by this Friday, Nov. 2. Remember that local post offices close earlier than polls close, so if you don’t complete your ballot until Election Day – Tuesday, Nov. 6 – we strongly recommend that you drop it in a ballot box.

For questions or assistance with ballots, please contact the Elections Office at (360) 378-3357 or elections@sanjuanco.com, or County Auditor Milene Henley at (360) 370-7558 or mileneh@sanjuanco.com.