Local News

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Logan Trabue bundles ballots at the King County Elections headquarters in Renton during the state primaries Tuesday morning. (John Lok / The Seattle Times)

Workers process ballots at the King County Elections headquarters in Renton on Tuesday afternoon. (John Lok / The Seattle Times)

With Seattle’s mayoral race and a King County parks levy hanging in the balance, King County Elections officials say they’ll count at least 230,000 ballots Tuesday night, releasing a single batch of results at about 8:15 p.m.

Turnout in the midsummer primary election is expected to be low. Officials have estimated 35 percent turnout in Seattle and 33 percent countywide.

There are 1,187,886 registered voters in King County, so if turnout projections hold, nearly 60 percent of the vote would be counted tonight.

Voters have until 8 p.m. to get ballots postmarked, or deposit them in county dropboxes.

“If they haven’t voted yet they probably want to get off the dime,” said Kim Van Ekstrom, spokeswoman for King County Elections.

Van Ekstrom said the county had about 250,000 ballots on hand as of Tuesday morning. The county expects another 50,000 or so ballots will arrive by mail Wednesday.

After Tuesday night, additional results will be released on most subsequent weekdays by 4:30 p.m., elections officials said. The election will be formally certified Aug. 20.