A ballot drop box sits ready for voters who drop off their ballots in the Deschutes county office in Bend, Ore., on Oct. 14, 2024.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB
Voting in Oregon is as convenient as returning a library book, or dropping a postage-paid letter in the mail. Voters get weeks to return ballots, and since 2022, the state has accepted mail-in votes postmarked by Election Day.
The system has done wonders for turnout. But in Central Oregon, Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison had a warning about one potential pitfall for local voters who still haven’t returned ballots for the Nov. 5 general election.
“I just can’t imagine a scenario, at least for myself, where I as a voter would take that ballot and put it into a mailbox, rather than putting it into a drop box,” said the chief elections official for the most populous county east of the Cascades.
“Voters need to know that their ballots are going to count,” Dennison added, “and the longer you wait up until Election Day, the more risk you run that it may not.”
Mail from Central Oregon is trucked hours away to be processed in Portland, and ballots may not be postmarked right away.
Ballots postmarked after Election Day will not be counted.
Dennison said there are a lot of upsides to the 2022 Oregon law allowing mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day. A downside, though, is the dramatic uptick in late, uncountable ballots.
A ballot counting machine runs a batch of test ballots at the Deschutes county offices in Bend on Oct. 14, 2024. County Clerk Steve Dennison stands in the background explaining the ballot counting process. The county tested their vote counting system in preparation for the Nov. 5 election, part of their accuracy testing protocol before and after every election.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB
In November 2022, the first general election after the postmark law took effect, Dennison said his office got 260 votes that were processed by postal officials too late to be counted. That was more than double the number of late ballots received after the 2020 general election, when overall turnout was higher.
Dennison advised voters registered in counties east of the Cascades to use any ballot drop box in Oregon. Ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington have received increased attention this week from election officials after an unknown person, alleged by police Wednesday to be a white male with metal fabrication experience, started fires with incendiary devices that destroyed nearly 500 ballots.
If any voters do prefer to use the mail, or need to because they are out-of-state during the election, Dennison said it’s best to go to a post office counter, especially on Election Day itself.
“Get it hand postmarked,” he urged. “Take the mystery out.”
Michael Lui feeds test ballots into a ballot counting maching in Bend, Ore., on Oct. 14, 2024. The county tested their vote counting system in preparation for the Nov. 5 election, part of their accuracy testing protocol before and after every election.
Kathryn Styer Martínez / OPB