Mercer Island General Election Turnout 87.3 Percent

King County Elections certified the results of 2012 general election on Tuesday afternoon, with 15,261 votes from Mercer Island — a 87.3 percent turnout, just shy of the 2008 high-water mark of 87.8.

Nearly 1,000 more voters have been added to local voter rolls and surpassed the previous Island high of 14,551 in 2008.

Countywide, voters returned 993,908 ballots for an overall turnout of 85 percent, with 978,377 (83.58 percent) of those ballots validated and counted in the final results report. Final results are available on the department’s website.

A registered voter turnout of 83.58 percent nearly equals the 2008 record of 83.9 percent. In absolute numbers, 978,377 is the highest-ever vote tally for King County Elections.

“Voters responded to our messaging this year and returned their ballots early,” said Sherril Huff, Director of Elections. “We counted a record high of 556,000 ballots on election night and the number of ballots received too late to process was down over two hundred percent.”

Local results for how Mercer Island voted in local, county, statewide and national races will be made available on Tuesday, Dec. 4 when elections officials release precinct level results. In 2008,

Voters also improved performance on signature-related issues which resulted in significantly fewer ballots requiring costly follow up.

One race, for the District 47 House of Representatives seat, qualified for a mandatory machine recount that will be conducted on Friday, Nov. 30. State Rep. Mark Hargrove (R-Covington) currently leads challenger Bud Sizemore by just 157 votes, or .3 percent of votes cast.

Citizens can register to vote or update their registration at the Elections web site by Jan. 14 to vote in the next election, a special election, on Feb. 12.

General election by the numbers

Mercer Island Registered Voters .. 17,490

Mercer Island Valid Ballots Cast ... 15,261

King County Ballots issued........... 1,216,246

Registered voters...................... 1,170,638

Ballots returned............................ 993,908

Ballots counted............................. 978,377

Ballots cast on AVUs........................ 4,463

Ballots returned by email................. 4,638

Ballots returned by fax........................ 806

Ballots returned at drop boxes... 208,105

Challenged ballots cured.............. 13,237

Ballots remaining challenged......... 8,900

Returned too late.............................. 3,068

Returned as undeliverable........... 11,002

(Ed. Note: The information in the article was supplied by King County Elections.)