Primary Election, August 2026

Already know what you need to about how ballots and primaries work? Skip the first few sections over to the primary races section.

Your ballot

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All Washington state voting is handled through the United States Postal Service. If you’re registered, your ballot arrives through the mail. While it can be returned through the mail for your convenience, you would need to do so immediately after receiving it. If you’re not sending it back the day you got it, the safest way for you to return your ballot is to bring it to a ballot drop box.

The 2026 primaries take place between July 16th, when ballots are sent out and ballot drop boxes opened, to August 4th at 8PM, when ballot drop boxes are closed. Voting is underway now! Please plan accordingly, and remember that it is perfectly fine in our state for someone else to drop off your ballot for you if you’re unable to do so yourself.

It will take about two weeks to get final results for this election, which for us is administered by King County.

Registering to vote

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You’ll need to be registered to receive your ballot. You can register online or by mail by July 27th, or you can register in person by August 4th, the final day of primary voting. If you’re not sure if you’re registered, you can register again.

You can check your registration status using King County’s Elections site. You can also sign up to get notifications about your ballot’s location if you are registered. Sign in and go to ‘Track my ballot’ to sign up. (Hint for login: use only your first name if you live with registered family members who share a last name.)

You must be a United States citizen and reside in the state of Washington to register to vote. To register online, you also need a state identification card.

Ballot drop boxes

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There are three ballot drop boxes located in Federal Way:

• City Hall, 33325 8th Ave. S, Federal Way, 98003
• 320th Library, 848 S 320th St., Federal Way, 98003
• Safeway Star Lake, 28810 Military Rd. S, Federal Way, 98003

You can find additional ballot drop boxes through the King County map.

About primaries

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Washington primaries allow voters to select two top contenders to move on to the general election in October/November, where they face off against each other. It is possible for a single party to take both spots for the general.

It is also possible for the dominant party to lose out on any general spots by splitting their vote among too many candidates, leaving the minority party to take both spots instead. To avoid primary splitting, consider consulting your local party’s endorsements when making your choice. There may be several good candidates to choose from, but the parties have taken the time to talk to all of them and made a single choice through their own member votes for whom they consider to be the best candidate.

Primary races

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You, a Federal Way resident, will be voting in the following races. Federal Way Indivisible does not currently make endorsements, but to help you make your choices, we’ve highlighted endorsements from your 30th Legislative District Democrats, King County Democrats, and the Progressive Voters Guide with research from Fuse Washington. For a more fun take not in this table, check out The Stranger’s endorsements.

If an endorsement says N/A, that group did not endorse anybody for that position; if it is blank, that group endorsed somebody else. If an incumbent says N/A, that position is an open seat and there is no incumbent.

You can see the full list of candidates for all elections in King County with links to their candidate bios.

State Supreme Court

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State Supreme Court races are nonpartisan, so there will be no indication on your ballot which party each candidate considers their personal party preference. It is an unusual year where five of nine total state Supreme Courts seats are up for election due to two retirements from the court. Position 4 is also open, but it is not included in the primary because only two candidates are running and will automatically face each other in the general election (this only applies to the state Supreme Court races).

Splitting votes risks moving the state Supreme Court into a conservative majority, so take those endorsements into consideration.

For more information about candidates and their endorsements, check out this guide from the Northwest Progressive Institute.