Is Washington State's 2024 general election voter turnout lagging? Not if you compare it to 2016

With Election Day fast approaching, our team has seen a few articles and columns commenting on Washington State’s voter turnout and noting that it’s significantly lower than it was at this point in 2020. For example, Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat wrote a column titled: “WA voter turnout is lagging. In of all years, this one?”

Here’s an excerpt:

If Kamala Harris wins, she would be the first woman to take the Oval Office. Kind of a big historic deal there too, no? It’s also unusual that she’s on the ballot, given that Democratic primary voters originally opted for an 81-year-old man.

So it’s surprising, at least to me, that voter turnout here in normally amped-up, civic-minded Washington state is lagging.

At this point in the last presidential election, in 2020, 830,000 more Washingtonians had cast ballots. The number of votes cast so far is down by more than 30%.

https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2024/10/is-washington-states-2024-general-election-voter-turnout-lagging-not-if-you-compare-it-to-2016.html?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup