Fewer than 17 percent of eligible voters in Kitsap County have already sent back in their ballots, according to ballot return statistics provided by the Kitsap County Elections Division.

The 2019 General Election is Tuesday, Nov. 5. County election officials said there are 174,659 eligible voters this election, though that number will change as new voters are registered through Election Day. (Residents can register and vote a ballot at the Kitsap County Auditor’s Office in Port Orchard up until 8 p.m. Election Day.)

Through Friday morning, Nov. 1, the county reported it had accepted a total of 28,594 ballots for counting. That represents 16.37 percent of the current registered, eligible voters in Kitsap.

This year’s ballot returns follow historic patterns, where a large, initial return of ballots is followed by weekday lulls and then small spikes following the weekends leading up to Election Day, with the greatest number of ballots arriving on the Monday before Election Day, and Election Day. Picture it as a big wave of ballots, followed by a smaller one a week later, then a large tsunami that crests on Election Day.

Kitsap election workers reported that that biggest day so far, in terms of ballot returns, was Tuesday, Oct. 22 (6,506 ballots), followed the two day total of by Monday, Oct. 28-Tuesday, Oct. 29 (7,525).