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How to track your ballot status in WA post-election

Voters can check their ballot status at votewa.gov or sign up for text alerts.

How to track your ballot status in WA post-election
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by

Paris Jackson

The November 3rd election is over. But the numbers are still rolling in to see how many of the state’s more than 5.1 million active voters have turned out.  

If it includes you - you can still check to see if your ballot was counted. The state makes the entire process easy to do.  


 Go to the votewa.gov website and enter your first and last name, and your date of birth to check the status of your ballot. Another way to conveniently receive ballot updates is through text message.  

Text the word VOTE to 86-8392 to see the latest status of your ballot on your cellphone.  

The Secretary of State’s Office says those text updates will show if your ballot was received, accepted, or challenged.  

If challenged, it will provide instructions on how to fix a mismatched or missing signature.   

In Washington elections, 1 out of every 62 ballots cast between 2020 and 2024 were challenged for a missing or mismatched signature, according to the University of Washington Elections Database. 

More than half of those have were fixed before the results became final. 

King County Election officials urge voters to track their ballots by signing up online on the county’s elections website.  

“It's great for peace of mind and it's great for security,” Kendall Hodson, King County Elections Chief of Staff said. 

Paris Jackson

By Paris Jackson

Paris Jackson is the host of “The Newsfeed”. She’s an Emmy Award-winning journalist with 15+ years in TV news and public media. A former anchor/reporter at KOMO-TV in Seattle. She is an editor-at-large at Cascade PBS. Paris-jackson@cascadepbs.org