By Kim Rosenberg
In Oregon we’ve been voting by mail in some shape or form since the Oregon Legislature approved a test run in 1981. The Governor’s Task Force on Local Government Services identified vote-by-mail as a big money saver and in 1995, Oregon became the first state to conduct a federal primary election completely by mail. Ballot Measure 60 mandating vote-by-mail for all Oregon elections passed in 1998 with 69.4% of the vote and we’ve been voting by mail ever since.
Over the next few weeks I’m going to take a look at how Oregon elections work. The information I’ve used today is from the Secretary of State’s Election Division website, the Tillamook County Clerk’s Office, and a September 13, 2024, report on OPB by Dirk VanderHart.
WHO CAN VOTE: In Oregon you have the right to vote, if you’re a US citizen, live in the state, are 18 years old and are registered. You have the right to vote if you’re homeless, if you’ve been convicted of a felony but have been released from custody, if you’re disabled and if you cast your ballot before 8pm on Election Day.
VOTER REGISTRATION: In 2016, Oregon’s ‘motor voter law’ began to automatically register new voters as they applied for a driver’s license. In 2019 lawmakers passed a bill allowing people to get a driver’s license without proving US citizenship. That bill collided with automatic registration and put 306 non US citizens on the voter rolls in 2024. Discovering the error, the Secretary of State’s office notified the list of residents that they’d need to prove citizenship at the DMV before they’d receive a ballot. Of the 306 people only two voted and it wasn’t certain that they did so intentionally. Since then, the DMV has added safeguards to make sure it won’t happen again.
WHERE YOU VOTE: According to ORS 247.035 a voter’s residency is determined by “the place in which habitation is fixed and to which, when the person is absent, they intend to return.” So your residency is where you get your mail, where your driver’s license and motor vehicle registration address is and where you pay utilities and taxes.
THE LIFE CYCLE OF AN ELECTION begins with the creation of a ballot in each county. The content of the ballot has to be perfect. Every detail from spelling and punctuation has to be exactly right before the ballots are printed and prepared for every registered voter. The election equipment is tested to make sure it’s accurate before and after each election. All registered voters are mailed a ballot that has a security weave on the inside so your vote remains top secret.
Sometimes a voter changes something on their registration like their address, name or political party. When you make any changes to your voters registration, your former ballot is automatically canceled and a new ballot is issued and sent to you. Only the new ballot is counted so while very occasionally a person might get two ballots nobody gets two votes.
Do your homework and check to see if your voter registration is up to date and correct!
Go to : https://sos.oregon.gov/elections/pages/registration.aspx?lang=en
Or, you can do this by texting VOTER to 59798
If this information has been helpful to you, please repost anywhere in Oregon! Let’s get out the vote!
