The Grays Harbor County Auditor’s Office continues to report a high volume of votes being received through the Postal Service and at ballot boxes across the county.

“We’re seeing extremely high turnout, which is great,” Auditor Joesph MacLean said on Monday while making the rounds of ballot collection across the county. “We just ran 1,500 ballots that came in the mail and ballot box today, and then I dropped off another 1,000 ballots from YMCA, Ocean Shores and Aberdeen (ballot boxes). We’re still out picking up ballots today and tomorrow, so we’ve got quite a few more coming in.”

As of Monday morning, the total turnout for Grays Harbor county tallied a 62.8% return of the county’s more than 48,500 ballots, not including the aforementioned 1,500 ballots the Auditor’s Office received and collected on Monday.

The auditor’s office plans to provide an updated count Tuesday morning of the number of ballots turned in to that point.

When polls close at 8 p.m. Election Day, the Auditor’s Office will post results on the internet at results.vote.wa.gov/results/20201103/graysharbor/. MacLean said he hopes to process as many ballots as possible through the system to get the most accurate count possible leading up the the polls closing.

“We’re going to process until we can’t process anymore,” he said. “We’re hoping to have all ballots that have made it through the signature check process all tabulated by (Tuesday) night.”

MacLean explained the number of votes his office is receiving and the time it takes to process the votes are hindrances, but that every vote that arrives at the office and has passed the signature-verification process will be counted.

“The biggest thing is the sheer volume, and it does take time to do the signature-check process and open the ballots for scanning,” he said, adding his staff of eight to 10 people have been working to ensure the “process is going really smoothly and fast.”

The signature-verification process is one that MacLean fields the most queries about, mostly regarding questions if a vote will be counted if the signature no-match letter — a letter sent by the auditor’s office when there is an issue with the signature on the original ballot — arrives after election night. As MacLean explained it, so long as the no-match letter is signed and returned to the auditor’s office by Nov. 23, the day the county certifies the vote count, then the vote will be counted.

“If you get a form in the mail you have until Nov. 23 to return it to us — 21 days after the election is the certification day for the county,” he said.

After MacLean posts the results shortly after the polls close Tuesday night, he expects there will still be ballots to process in the following days. He stated his office will update the totals on Friday with any ballots collected and processed after the election, and that the Auditor’s Office will continue to update the totals every three days so long as they receive at least 500 ballots. If they receive less than 500 ballots, the vote totals will be updated on the Nov. 23 certification date.