Voters can use votewa.gov to

 

• Register to vote online* or by mail until 10/28/2024. (*See docs needed below) From 10/29 through 11/5, voters register in person at 311 Grand Ave., in the Whatcom County Auditor’s office!
   

• Check your registration (ensure name, address, and phone are current!).
   

• Check your Legislative, local School, Utilities and Judicial Districts, and even your precinct.
   

• See ALL of your current electeds (this is where you’ll also see your full listing of various districts).
   

• Get link to the Whatcom County Auditor’s website and also see that contact info.
   

• Check on your ballot’s status after you’ve voted to make sure your ballot was accepted, and not challenged for a signature mismatch or other reason.
  Voters should just get in the habit of checking on our ballot status about three days after returning our ballots, no matter how early we've returned them.
   

• Get a list of all BALLOT DROP BOX locations - and, they all link out to maps!

 

*To register online, you will need a current WA State Driver’s License, Permit, or ID card. If you don't have one, you can use the last four digits of your social security number to register.
If you don’t have any of that info, you may still be able to register by mail or in person!

 

Nov. 5th 2024 General Election KEY DATES:

October 16   Start of 20-day voting period (through Election Day). Ballots are mailed out and Accessible Voting Units (AVUs) are available at voting centers.
 

October 28    Online and mail registrations must be received 8 days before Election Day. Register to vote in person during business hours and any time before 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.
 

November 5 before 8PM   Deadline for Washington State voter registration or updates (meaning you can register and vote at the same time!), in person only.
 

November 5 General Election   Put your ballot into an official drop box before 8 p.m. on Election Day. 

 

About Your Ballot

 

WA State has Mail-In Ballots.

Ballots are mailed to the address the state has on file for us, and we can return our ballets anytime up until 8PM on election day!
 

It’s a GREAT idea to VOTE EARLY!
But, some folks prefer to vote ON election day, and if you’re one of those folks, be sure you read the note below!

 

If you return your ballot ON Election Day (Nov. 5),

USE A DROP BOX!

PLEASE DO NOT leave your ballot on your mailbox, put your ballot into a U.S. Post Office Box ,or into a U.S. Mail drop. 🙅🏼‍♀️ Nope. Just don't do it!

IF YOU VOTE ON ELECTION DAY, PUT YOUR BALLOT INTO AN OFFICIAL BALLOT DROP BOX! 

 

This will ensure that your vote is received by the auditor’s office before the 8pm cutoff, and that your vote WILL be counted!

It's risky business to mail your ballot ON election day. WHY?

Because, if it doesn’t get processed/metered before the last USPS mail cutoff time for that day, it WON’T get counted, and that is such a tragedy! Cutoff times are different for various USPS boxes, and vary inside different post offices.

 

There is a list of drop box locations INSIDE your ballot envelope. If you’ve lost or thrown that away, you can also find a list of drop box locations nearest you in votewa.gov! When you click on a drop box in the votewa.gov portal, it should open a map so that you can navigate to it. If it doesn’t, check your browser settings or just key the address by hand into whatever mapping tool you like to use!

 

You can also find drop box information on the Whatcom County Auditor's website.
Go to: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/Elections and click on the Ballot Drop Box Locations button or link. They have a GIS mapping tool you can use, but they should hopefully also have a basic plain text list on the site soon as well - Maya's requested that!

 

Past Felony Conviction? In WA State, you CAN VOTE!

When the right to vote is restored:
 

• If you were convicted of a felony in Washington State, another state, or in federal court, your right to vote will be restored automatically as long as you are not currently serving a sentence of total confinement in prison.
   

• If you were convicted of a felony in another state or in federal court, your right to vote is restored automatically as long as you are not currently incarcerated for that felony.
   

• You do not lose the right to vote for a misdemeanor conviction or a conviction in juvenile court.
   

• You do not need a certificate of discharge (COD) to have your voting rights restored.
   

You can find more complete information on this here!

 

Currently unhoused? You CAN vote!

 

Official info is here! -- Or, go in to the Whatcom County Auditor's office at 311 Grand Ave, which is the round glass entrance across from the Downtown Bellingham Public Library lawn, and ask them to help walk you through your voter registration!

 

You can also register AND vote in person all at the same time from Oct. 16th, onward.

Even if you don't have a stable traditional home address, your vote is important, and it matters greatly! You can help elect people's champions, and folks who actually want to legislate a permanent end to our unhoused crisis.

 

You'll do need to provide some kind of address - that can be a shelter, like Base Camp, a location where you can be found on a regular basis, a P.O. Box.

 

One thing to keep in mind: If you are unhoused in Bellingham, you likely already know, but the City has created exclusion zones where unhoused people are not allowed to sit, sleep or rest, and BPD has been very focused on disrupting people who are unhoused from anywhere they/you are camping. Because voter addresses are public record, if you are tent camping, you may want to consider putting your safety first, and not offering your actual camping location as your location of record for your ballot. You may want to consider listing a location where you can be found at other times of the day, My hope is that no one endangers themselves or their survival in order cast a ballot.

 

If you are unhoused and voting, thank you so much for making this effort and doing the extra work it takes to for you to cast your vote. Democracy is unfortunately less accessible for people who own land than it is for people who don't. That needs to change, but we won't be able to change it without a whole lot of VOTES!