WA's early voting data available

We are now barely more than one week from the election, and we are getting new data on early voting. Fox 13's Sam Campbell has been tracking these numbers live in the newsroom for us this morning. Sam, what can you tell us? Well, Taylor, our Secretary of State has put out some new data on early voting in Washington, so let's take a look here. Of the 5.1 million ballots mailed out in Washington state, about 770,000 people have already returned theirs. That's about 15% turnout so far. How many of the ballots here in Washington are getting rejected, though? Well, the answer, not much. The Secretary of State says 4,500 ballots have been challenged. The top reasons, mismatching and missing signatures. So only about half of 1% of ballots are being rejected. And we still have nine more days until Election Day, and that means if you're not yet registered to vote, you've got nine more days to do so. But if you want to do that online, then tomorrow is your last day. And then you have to do it in person at an election office before 8 p.m. on November 3rd. If you plan to send your ballot by mail, election officials say you should do this by Tuesday. The postmark will be done at their central processing facilities. So it could be anywhere from three days to five days and sometimes seven days. That's why we've been urging voters, Washingtonians out there, mail your ballot early. If you're within seven days of the election, just take it to a drop box. How early, or I'm sorry, how is early voting turnout here comparing to other states in the region? Well, it's 15% turnout, but that's only so far in Washington state. Compare that with 15.7% in Oregon and 12% in California. How does this midterms turnout compare to last cycle? Well, looking at data from this point four years ago, with nine days till the election in 2022, Washington State had about 669,000 ballots returned. It means this year turnout is about 2% higher so far. In the newsroom, Sam Campbell, Fox 13 News.