Another successful Election Day winding down

Results expected to trickle in until 1:30 a.m.

Election Day began this morning at 7 a.m. as 393 polling places opened their doors and absentee ballots were processed through the vote-counting equipment at King County election headquarters in Renton. Election officials will work through the night to post results as they arrive from polling places throughout King County.

Along with the new Top 2 primary, voters saw new faces at their local polling places. More than 100 students from schools throughout King County participated in the Partnership in Democracy program and worked at the polls today to earn money for their various causes. For more information on joining Partnership in Democracy, visit http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/aboutus/employment/partnership.aspx.

King County also debuted “King County Votes,” a Web site dedicated to live Election Day reports and photos from voters, poll workers, and Elections staff. King County Votes will be posted at http://your.kingcounty.gov/votes/ through tomorrow. King County Votes will also be active the November General Election.

“We received fewer calls for assistance from poll workers today which indicate our new training material and curriculum were effective and seems to suggest that voters had little trouble adapting to the new primary,” said King County Elections Director Sherril Huff. “Overall turnout will be lower than what we expected to see and likely come in around 35 percent.” Huff attributed this to few hotly contested primary races or ballot measures.

Initial results from the 127,000 absentee ballots counted today were posted at 8:15 p.m. These results included all ballots available for tabulation on Election Day.

Election results

Polling place results were first posted at 10:30 p.m. and will be posted hourly until 1:30 a.m. Results can be found at http://your.kingcounty.gov/elections/200808/results.aspx .