Despite an election season unlike any before, Oregon voters so far are returning ballots at a rate that could bring turnout close to the high level from 2016, with its fevered primary race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
As of the close of business Monday, 467,000 Oregonians, or 16 percent of those registered to vote, had returned ballots to county elections offices, state officials reported Tuesday. That’s in the same range for the same day four years ago.
Turnout in Oregon’s 2016 primary reached 54 percent, much higher than in 2012. The highly competitive race for president on the Democratic ballot was a big driver in Democrat-heavy Oregon.
High voter participation was achieved four years ago after voters turned in an avalanche of 385,000 ballots on Election Day as well as extra-large numbers in the two or three days before that. Oregon currently has 2.45 million registered voters.
It’s unclear whether a final-days surge will happen this time around.
Elections officials are urging voters not to rush to potentially crowded ballot drop-off sites at the last minute this year.
Thursday is the final day to mail your ballot and be confident it will reach the elections office by 8 p.m. Election Day – the deadline to have your vote counted.
Elections offices are taking new steps to protect workers who open and process ballots. Multnomah County, for example, normally hires 250 temporary workers, many of them over 60, but it has reduced that number to 150 this year to allow for additional spacing, said spokeswoman Jessica Morkert-Shibley.
Many of those it has hired are younger than the usual crew, including county workers reassigned from other departments, said Multnomah Elections Director Tim Scott.
“Most of our long-time on-call workers are in high-risk categories and have opted out of working in this election,” he said
Workers handling the county’s ballots this year wear masks and gloves as they do that work.
“We got this,” Scott said in a statement. “Vote-by-mail is the perfect solution to administering an election while allowing people to stay physically apart. But we have had to make some changes to our processes to keep both employees and voters safe.”
Voters who are registered as Republicans or Democrats will be able to choose not only a nominee for president but also candidates for Oregon secretary of state, for many competitive House and Senate races and, in eastern and parts of Central Oregon, a nominee for the most hotly contested race for Congress in decades.
All voters will be offered a say in city and county elections and may find an array of ballot measures, judicial races and contests for the Metro regional government.
