King County Elections certified the results of 2012 general election today. Voters returned 993,908 ballots for a final turnout of 85 percent, with 978,377 of those ballots tabulated in the final results report. Final results are available on the department’s website.

“Voters responded to our messaging this year and returned their ballots early,” said Sherril Huff, Director of Elections. “We counted a record high of 556,000 ballots on election night and the number of ballots received too late to process was down over two hundred percent.”

Voters also improved performance on signature-related issues which resulted in significantly fewer ballots requiring costly follow up.

One race, for the District 47 House of Representatives seat, qualified for a mandatory machine recount that will be conducted on Friday, Nov. 30.

Citizens can register to vote or update their registration at the Elections web site by Jan. 14 to vote in the next election, a special election, on Feb. 12.

General election by the numbers

Ballots issued………………………. 1,216,246

Registered voters…………………. 1,170,638

Ballots returned………………………. 993,908

Ballots counted……………………….. 978,377

Ballots cast on AVUs…………………… 4,463

Ballots returned by email…………….. 4,638

Ballots returned by fax…………………… 806

Ballots returned at drop boxes… 208,105

Challenged ballots cured………….. 13,237

Ballots remaining challenged……… 8,900

Returned too late………………………… 3,068

Returned as undeliverable……….. 11,002

-from a press release