EVERETT — As the Feb. 10 special election approaches, voters will need to ensure their ballots are turned in on time to make sure their votes are counted.<\/p>\n
If voters choose to mail their ballots via a postal box, the United States Postal Service recommends mailing the ballot a week before election day to ensure it is postmarked on or before election day. Local election officials have previously said<\/a> that recent changes to the way the United States Postal Service processes mail may affect how quickly mailed ballots receive a postmark. If a ballot is postmarked after election day, it will not be counted.<\/p>\n Other options to ensure that ballots are counted is to request a manual postmark in person at a local post office. That service is free. Voters can also use one of 35 official ballot drop boxes located across the county, which are open all day and close at 8 p.m. on the day of the election.<\/p>\n February’s special election ballot includes 21 bond and levy <\/a>measures<\/a>, nearly all of them from local school districts. Voters will only see measures on their ballot for the districts they live in.<\/p>\n About 9.7% of voters who received a ballot had turned in their vote as of Monday, according to data<\/a> from the Snohomish County Auditor’s Office. Countywide turnout in recent February special elections typically hovers around the 30% mark, election records show. <\/p>\n Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; <\/em>william.geschke@heraldnet.com<\/em><\/a>; X: <\/em>@willgeschke<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Voters can use ballot drop boxes or visit a post office for a manual postmark to ensure their ballot is counted before the deadline. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1126,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[954,1084,2,1024],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-862392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections","category-elections-news","category-news","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/heraldnet.com\/2026\/02\/03\/ballots-for-special-election-are-due-feb-10\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Ballots for special election are due Feb. 10","url":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/02\/03\/ballots-for-special-election-are-due-feb-10\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.heraldnet.com\/2026\/02\/03\/ballots-for-special-election-are-due-feb-10\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Local News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Will Geschke"}],"creator":["Will Geschke"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"HeraldNet.com","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-02-03T09:30:00Z","datePublished":"2026-02-03T09:30:00Z","dateModified":"2026-03-27T20:38:04Z"},"rendered":"