Washington County: Ballot Returns Reach 26.07%, Within Half a Point of the State Rate
- Washington County voters had returned 106,563 ballots for the Nov.
- The state's unofficial ballot returns report lists counties, not cities, and has no separate count for Hillsboro.
- Focus Hillsboro saved the Oct.
Washington County voters had returned 106,563 ballots for the Nov. 3 general election as of 8:55 a.m. Oct. 28, or 26.07% of the county’s 408,795 active voters, an unofficial Oregon Secretary of State report shows. The statewide figure was 26.54%, leaving the county 0.47 percentage point behind, down from 1.74 points in the same report two days earlier.
The state’s unofficial ballot returns report lists counties, not cities, and has no separate count for Hillsboro. The state says the figures are “unofficial and should not be used for official reporting,” and that they can change as counties receive and process ballots.
Two reports, two days apart
Focus Hillsboro saved the Oct. 26 version of the report, generated at 9:16 a.m. It showed 60,749 Washington County ballots, or 14.86%, against 517,544 ballots, or 16.60%, statewide. By our calculation, the county logged 45,814 more ballots between the two reports and the state 309,814, raising the county’s rate 11.21 points and the state’s 9.94 points.
Both versions divide by the same number: active voters in a snapshot taken at 7 a.m. Oct. 16, which the state says stays fixed until 27 days after Election Day. With that base unchanged, each move in a percentage comes from the ballot count. In the Oct. 28 report, neighboring Clackamas County stood at 27.81% and Multnomah County at 20.06%.
The gap, one received date at a time
The report’s third page breaks each county’s ballots down by the date they were received. We turned those daily counts into running totals and divided by active voters, showing where the county and state stood after each date.
| Received date | Washington ballots that day | Washington total | Washington % | Oregon % | Gap (points) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 16* | 289 | 289 | 0.07% | 0.31% | 0.24 |
| Oct. 19 | 7,300 | 7,589 | 1.86% | 2.90% | 1.04 |
| Oct. 20 | 9,225 | 16,814 | 4.11% | 4.96% | 0.85 |
| Oct. 21 | 14,222 | 31,036 | 7.59% | 8.81% | 1.22 |
| Oct. 22 | 16,713 | 47,749 | 11.68% | 12.64% | 0.96 |
| Oct. 23 | 12,899 | 60,648 | 14.84% | 16.71% | 1.87 |
| Oct. 26 | 31,622 | 92,270 | 22.57% | 23.54% | 0.97 |
| Oct. 27 | 14,293 | 106,563 | 26.07% | 26.53% | 0.46 |
Our calculation from page 3 of the state’s report generated 8:55 a.m. Oct. 28. *Oct. 16 includes ballots received on or before that date. Percentages use the report’s active-voter counts (408,795 for the county, 3,117,439 statewide); the gap is the Oregon figure minus the Washington figure, both rounded. The report’s 26.54% state total also counts 195 ballots Union County logged on Oct. 28; Washington has none listed that day.
The running totals show the gap peaking at 1.87 points after Oct. 23, then falling to 0.46 after Oct. 27, its lowest since Oct. 16. On Oct. 26 and Oct. 27, Washington County accounted for 14.87% and 15.29% of the ballots Oregon received on those dates, above its 13.11% share of the state’s active voters, by our calculation.
Earlier days can change between reports
Those daily figures are not fixed. Washington’s Oct. 19 count was 7,306 in the Oct. 26 copy and is 7,300 in the Oct. 28 report, and each of the county’s daily counts for Oct. 19 through Oct. 23 is lower in the newer version. By our calculation, the five days dropped by 101 ballots, and the report does not itemize the changes.
The report also has no columns for Oct. 17–18 or Oct. 24–25, both weekends, and Oct. 26 is Washington’s largest single date, at 31,622. A note on the report’s last page says ballots are logged by the date they are received rather than the date they are processed, and that this produces “normal fluctuations” in daily counts.
Getting a ballot in by Nov. 3
By our calculation, 302,232 of the county’s active voters had no ballot recorded as received in the Oct. 28 report. The state’s drop box locator says ballots can be left at any official drop site in Oregon until 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3, and that voters in line at 8 p.m. may still drop theirs off.
Mail follows a postmark rule. The state’s elections FAQ says ballots must be mailed with a valid postmark by Election Day, and that a ballot mailed on Nov. 3 can count if the post office picks it up and postmarks it that day and it arrives within seven days.
The state’s voting page lists Nov. 10 as the last day for county clerks to receive ballots postmarked by Election Day. For drop-off, the state’s official drop-site list, marked final on Oct. 27, names five Hillsboro locations, including the Brookwood and Shute Park library boxes. Our Oct. 24 ballot deadlines story lists all five with their addresses.
Top image: Illustrative image, 2021: an official ballot drop site in Lincoln County, Oregon (not a Washington County box). Photo: Rick Obst, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
