Community Government

Voters urged to use drop boxes; National Guard to monitor Pierce County election sites

County and state elections officials are urging voters who haven’t returned their ballots yet to do so using a drop box, not the U.S. Postal Service.

The Pierce County Elections Office noted that ballots mailed on Monday or Tuesday, Nov. 2 or 3, might not count.

“If you do mail your ballot, know that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) issued rules clarifying that the day a ballot is mailed may not be the day it is postmarked,” the Elections Office wrote in an Oct. 27 news release. “If mailing within a week of Election Day, go in-person and request a manual postmark at the counter. If ballots are not postmarked on or before Election Day, they will not count.”

The Washington Secretary of State’s Office, which directs elections, agrees. The office “strongly encouraged” voters to use a drop box instead of relying on the mail.

Voters must return ballots by 8 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Locally, the general election ballot includes contests for all three seats in the Legislature representing Gig Harbor and the rest of the 26th Legislative District. Also on the ballot are proposed amendments to the Pierce County Charter, as well as three statewide ballot initiatives.

Click here to find links to all of Gig Harbor Now’s 2026 elections coverage.

National Guard at polling places

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson last week sent a letter to county auditors offering Washington National Guard members to serve as an “Election Neighborhood Watch” at drop boxes. Pierce was one of seven counties that took him up on the offer.

National Guard soldiers will neither wear uniforms nor interact with voters, Ferguson wrote. They will “serve as eyes and ears on the ground and would be available to immediately coordinate with local authorities in the event of any issues.”

The Democratic governor pointed out that his predecessor, Jay Inslee, deployed the Guard to protect polling places after a bomb was found in a ballot box in Vancouver. Ferguson also wrote that the state Secretary of State’s Office and other officials recently received “letters containing white powder.”

“Amid these recent developments and the highly charged atmosphere of this election, my administration is taking every precaution to ensure that every vote counts and that counties have the resources they need to monitor and respond to potential threats.”

King, Snohomish, Thurston, Clark, Lewis and Island counties also accepted Ferguson’s offer.

“There’s a lot of noise about elections right now,” Pierce County Deputy Auditor Linda Kent told the Washington State Standard. “Looking at the broader context, out of an abundance of caution additional resources is not a bad idea.”

Drop box locations

Gig Harbor has a new drop box location, at the Gig Harbor Sports Fields at 10770 Harbor Hill Dr., near the Tom Taylor Family YMCA.

Other Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula drop box locations include: 

• Gig Harbor Library, 4424 Point Fosdick Dr. 
• Gig Harbor Civic Center, 3510 Grandview St. 
• Nichols Community Center, 690 Ninth Ave., Fox Island 
• Purdy Park and Ride, 14567 Purdy Dr. 
• Lake Kathryn Food Market, 14220 92nd Ave NW, Wauna 
• Key Center Food Market, 9021 Key Peninsula Hwy., Lakebay 
• Home Park, 17220 Eighth Ave NW, Home 

Where to find results

The Pierce County Elections Office and Washington Secretary of State’s Office typically post results at about 8:10 p.m. on Election Day. Gig Harbor Now will post a story shortly thereafter. 

This article includes information from the Washington State Standard, a nonprofit publication covering policy and politics in Olympia.