Washington Elections

(Runtime 7:53)In preparation for the general election this November, Northwest Public Broadcasting’s newsroom is answering your questions about elections.…

The skepticism in how elections work and their accuracy has become a hot topic on social media, at the dinner table and in the news. Kyle Haugh, Pierce County elections manager, said since 2016, there’s been a spike in interest in how elections are administered.

More eyes are on ballots in the Tri-Cities area this election, according to reports from the Benton County auditor.

Democratic incumbent Steve Hobbs and independent challenger Julie Anderson were leading Washington’s top two primary for Secretary of State after the initial ballot count Tuesday night. Republican Bob Hagglund, who has never held public office, was in a close third place.

Washington legislative Republicans were taking stock Wednesday of their less than dazzling performance in the initial returns of the August primary.

County election officials in Washington are warning that a new statewide voter registration database system is not ready for the state's August 6 primary and could result in some voters getting incorrect ballots or no ballot at all. The concerns reached a crescendo on Tuesday at a work session of the Washington Senate's State Government, Tribal Relations and Elections Committee.

More than $25 million has poured into Washington state's 8th Congressional District race, making it one of the most expensive U.S. House contest in the country.

On the final day of the Washington legislative session last week, lawmakers passed a bill to make it easier to prosecute police for negligent shootings. It was a compromise agreed to by groups on all sides to keep a potentially divisive initiative off the November ballot.

A batch of late-arriving ballots is going out to nearly 7,000 Washington voters in advance of next Tuesday’s special election. That’s because of an error in the state’s Motor Voter system that allows people to register to vote when they get a drivers license.

Washington voters will likely get to weigh in on police use of deadly force. A ballot measure on that subject turned in around 360,000 voter signatures…