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Sophia Aldous
NEWPORT – An important message was brought to Pend Oreille County voters from Secretary of State Steve Hobbs when he visited the commissioners’ and Auditor Marianne Nichols office Tuesday morning, Oct. 6.
“If you are going to vote by mail, do it early,” Secretary Hobbs said. “I’m urging people to put their ballots in their nearest ballot box, but if you insist on voting by mail, do it as soon as possible. Do not wait until election day.”
Hobbs was visiting rural counties around Northeast Washington this week. He said the state saw a large increase of rejected ballots in the August Primary Election because they weren’t postmarked in time due to postal service processing delays. The share of Washington ballots rejected because of late postmarks rose to 1.1% in this year’s primary, up from 0.8% in 2024, according to data from the secretary of state’s office.
Auditor Nichols and Pend Oreille County election officials echoed that concern.
“Our local post office is great, it’s just due to the new processes they have to do by federal mandate that makes it unlikely your ballot will reach us in time if you try to mail it back on voting day,” Nichols said.
According to Liz Krizenesky, Pend Oreille County Election Manager, there were 132 ballots that were postmarked too late to be counted in the August 2026 Primary. In 2025, there were only 28, which she said is a typical amount.
“It obviously jumped up a lot from then to now,” Krizenesky said.
Under Washington law, mailed ballots are counted based on the day they are postmarked, not the day they are received.
There were 4,588 tabulated ballots in Pend Oreille County out of 4,764 submitted ballots. Those that were not tabulated were either postmarked too late or had unvalidated signatures or other issues.
Last year’s changes to mail delivery are separate from President Trump’s March 31 executive order on mail-in voting, which Washington and other states continue to fight in court. These changes stem from the Delivering for America plan started by the U.S. Postal Service in March 2021 as a 10-year strategic transformation initiative to modernize operations.
Pend Oreille County has several ballot boxes around the area, including two in Newport, two in Cusick, one in Ione, Metaline and Metaline Falls. Voters who mail their ballot should ensure it is postmarked no later than Nov. 3. If mailing a ballot after Oct. 26, voters should take it directly to a postal clerk and request a hand-applied postmark at the counter to help ensure it receives a timely postmark. Ballots will be mailed out Oct. 14-16.
During his visit to Newport, Hobbs also met with county commissioners John Gentle, Robert Rosencrantz and Brian Smiley before touring the auditor’s office and meeting elections employees.
For more information, go to www.pendoreille.gov/ auditor/page/elections.
