Election Day is ... today. With several hotly contested races, a number of ballot measures and political fervor running high, citizens who have not yet voted do have some options. Whitman County has a vote-by-mail system, so county Auditor Eunice Coker said ballots need to be postmarked by today. “It really is on the voter,” Coker said, “the responsibility to say, ‘Where is my ballot?’ ” She said as most mail goes to Spokane before getting postmarked, so voters might want to get a hand-stamped postmark from a post office. Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed told The Associated Press that voters who wait until the last minute may want to take their ballots into an official election drop-off area instead of relying on a street-side mailbox. The Whitman County Auditor’s Office has a drop-off box for ballots, and Pullman City Hall also has a box, Coker said. The Auditor’s Office is open today from 7 a.m. and 8 p.m in Colfax.

For people who did not receive a ballot but are registered voters, there is still a way to vote, she said. Registered voters can vote with a provisional ballot, which will be duplicated by the office and counted in that way, she said. Disabled voters can also vote by bringing their mail-in ballots either to Pullman City Hall or the Commissioner’s Chambers in Colfax. Disability access machines, or AutoMark machines, can help with voting. No matter what the situation, the office will help voters, Coker said. She said she recently helped a woman whose dog chewed the mail and ate her ballot.

Whitman County has about 40,000 citizens – 20,000 of whom are registered to vote. As of late Monday, the Auditor’s Office received back about 30 percent of the ballots, Coker said. According to the Vote Washington Web site, the primary election in Whitman County had a 32-percent voter turnout. State Elections Director Nick Handy told the Associated Press that the average turnout in the primary was 37 percent. The eight counties with a 50-percent or higher turnout all have large numbers of rural voters. Coker said registered voters should still go out to vote. “It’s the only way we have of making our voice heard,” she said. Karen Bafus, elections technician at the Whitman County Auditor’s Office, said the office has been receiving ballots and processing them daily. At 4 p.m. Monday, the office had received 8,260 ballots, Bafus said. That represents 44.8 percent of the registered voters in Whitman County.

Bruce Pinkleton, WSU professor of communication and director of a study on the media and political decision making, said he has found that voters’ attitudes often are crystallized right around Election Day, when political ads are everywhere and parties are pushing hard for their candidates. “Frankly, you can’t escape from it,” Pinkleton said. “There’s a tremendous amount of news interest around this time.” Pinkleton said the excitement created by the elections still interests him despite the negative ads he studies. As far as who will come out on top of this election, he said he didn’t know for sure. “It’s always hard to say,” Pinkleton said. “It’s really fun.”