Free Return Postage Missing on Grant, Asotin County Ballots

Elections officials in Asotin and Grant Counties notified the Office of Secretary of State Monday morning that a vendor had mistakenly provided voters in those counties General Election ballot-return envelopes that require postage.

This year’s Primary and General Elections are the first in which voters in every county were granted the convenience of voting by mail without needing to affix a stamp on the ballot-return envelope, thanks to an agreement between Secretary of State Kim Wyman and Governor Jay Inslee. However, the Tacoma-based mail vendor contracted by Asotin and Grant Counties to distribute ballots to registered voters used the wrong envelopes.

“Our job is to be sure that voters in both of these counties are treated the same as the voters in Washington’s other 37 counties,” Secretary Wyman said. “That’s why my office is assisting elections officials in those two counties to find a quick resolution.”

Elections officials urge those wishing to vote immediately to use the county’s ballot drop boxes. Voters who wish to mail their ballots may affix stamps to ballot-return envelopes to ensure their votes are counted and safeguard against any issues with postal processing of unstamped ballot-return envelopes.

“One of the advantages of Washington’s vote-by-mail system is that we have an 18-day voting period before Election Day to identify and correct any issues that come up,” Secretary Wyman said. “People sometimes make mistakes, and these counties have time to correct the problem. That’s the goal we’re working toward.”