Archive for the 'Elections' Category

Online Voter Registration is LIVE!

Published on March 8, 2010 in Elections. 0 Comments

As many of you are aware, Online Voter Registration has been LIVE for one week now!

In just one week of service, over 1049 Oregonians have registered to vote using the new system.

Remember, Online Voter Registration is NOT replacing paper registration, it is simply offering up an alternative to the paper system for those who would use it. As Secretary of State Brown stated in a recent Oregonian Op-Ed:

It will help people who find traditional procedures out of reach, including the housebound and the disabled community. With the right equipment, for example, sightless people can register without the assistance of another person to fill out a card. Our military servicemen and women will find far less delay in registration, eliminating worries about whether the snail mail will deliver their paperwork in time.

We are extremely happy to have the system up and running and hope that Oregonians continue to get registered to vote in the upcoming May Primary Election.

We’ll leave you today with a table with of some more detailed information on registrations done with the Online system:

Online Voter Registration Statistics as of 11:30am, 3/8/2010
Total Registrations 1049
Registration Type
Type # of Registrations
Electronic (DMV signature exists) 829
Paper (no DMV signature) 220
Total 1049
Registrations by Party
Party # of Registrations
Constitution Party 0
Democratic Party 346
Independent Party 140
Libertarian Party 13
Not a member of a party 198
Other 11
Pacific Green Party 17
Progressive Party 6
Republican Party 275
Working Families Party 5
No Party Selected 38
Total 1049
Registrations by County
County # of Registrations
Baker 1
Benton 9
Clackamas 96
Clatsop 9
Columbia 9
Coos 12
Crook 13
Deschutes 97
Douglas 28
Harney 2
Hood River 4
Jackson 62
Jefferson 9
Josephine 22
Klamath 23
Lake 3
Lane 117
Lincoln 7
Linn 29
Malheur 3
Marion 72
Morrow 1
Multnomah 219
Polk 20
Tillamook 2
Umatilla 3
Union 6
Washington 139
Wheeler 2
Yamhill 30
Total 1049
Registrations by Age
Age Group # of Registrations
17-19 49
20-29 246
30-39 240
40-49 167
50-59 152
60-69 124
70-79 55
80-89 16
Total 1049

Online Voter Registration Demo

Published on February 23, 2010 in Elections, HAVA and Social Media. 0 Comments

We are very excited to announce that our Online Voter Registration system going live on March 1st, and very busy getting ready for this monumental project to launch.

We wanted to invite everyone to take part in a webinar demo of the most user-friendly, convenient and secure way of registering to vote in the State of Oregon. This informational demo will take participants through the online registration process, from beginning to end, followed by a short question and answer session with Elections Director Steve Trout.

Our online participants will join members of the Legislature, advocacy groups and state wide media, who will be viewing the presentation from inside the Capitol Building in Salem.

The webinar will take place on February 25, 2010 at 9:00am. Registration information for the webinar can be found at this link:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/790747411

We hope to see you there!

Fun Facts – Special Election Edition

Published on February 2, 2010 in Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , .

As the January 2010 Special Election wraps up we thought it would be nice to share some fun statistics from this years election. Since the election has not been certified, these numbers could change as ballots are processed by the counties.

Early Scanning

As Jeff Mapes alluded to in this piece, early scanning had a major impact on the tallying of votes in this election. According to our number crunching Deputy Secretary of State, it is estimated that by 9:00pm, just one hour after the voting deadline, around 83% of ballots had been tallied. This is thanks to a bill that was passed during the 2009 session, which allows for counties to scan ballots received before the deadline and keep that data stored safely and securely until election day. It should be noted that the ballots are ONLY scanned and not tabulated until election day.

We received some kind words from County clerks, thanking us for making early scanning a reality.

Voter Turnout

You may remember the Secretary’s turnout prediction of 62% for this special election. Well according to our OCVR data as of yesterday, 1,280,278 of a total 2,049,703, or almost exactly 62% of registered voters, turned in their ballots this election!

Our elections division has 30 days from election day to certify this special election. We will be sure to share the final data with you as it is made available.

Election Day – Special Election Edition

Published on January 26, 2010 in Elections and Secretary Brown. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Today, January 26th, is the final day to turn in your ballot for the Special Election! Your ballot must be received by 8pm to be counted. To find a ballot drop off site, please take a look at our Ballot Drop Box Locator.

The election is in full swing on the final day for Oregonians to turn in ballots. For a look at daily returns, you can check out our elections handy (but unofficial) ballot returns table. Multnomah, Clackamas, Lane, Marion, Coos, and Benton Counties are also keeping more detailed and in some cases up-to-date tallies as they become available.

For her part, Secretary of State Kate Brown is taking the day to observe the democratic process with Multnomah County Elections officials as they pickup, drop off, process, and tally ballots.

Turnout Projection

Published on January 21, 2010 in Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , .

We don’t have a magic crystal ball or cool hat here at the Secretary of State’s office, but we do have some pretty smart elections staff. Today our staff offered up a turnout projection of 62% for the upcoming special election.

This projection is based on a number of trends and some similarities in the numbers between what we’re seeing now and the 2004 special election, which also featured a ballot measure on taxes. Some more in depth facts that informed our projection:

  • 2004 February Special turnout on a tax increase was 63%.  At this point in the election in 2004, about 5% more ballots had been returned than have been in this election;
  • However, the MLK holiday took a day of mail delivery out, which did not occur in 2004;
  • Ballots are coming in later, but in higher numbers than in 2004.  As an example, the first day of returns in 2004 saw 78,530 ballots in, compared to 2,772 in 2010.  Most counties are catching up with higher daily returns as the voting window remains open.
  • As voters continue to embrace vote-by-mail, we’ve seen them hold onto their ballots longer, usually resulting in a large spike the weekend before election day, and on election day itself.  We expect we’ll see that again this year.

This is a very important election to the state of Oregon and Oregonians are acting accordingly. We’ve had about 36% of ballots returned so far, with more than 100,000 more coming in each day, which is truly great considering the proximity to the holidays, including the Federal holiday we had last weekend.

Secretary of State Brown encourages all eligible voters to cast their vote and prove her wrong by shattering the 62% prediction!

What percentage of Oregon’s voters do YOU think will vote in next Tuesday’s election?

For more information about what happens after you’ve turned in your ballot, check out our entry from November From The Ballot Box to The Scanner.

Ballot Drop Locator

Published on January 14, 2010 in Elections and HAVA. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Most every registered voter in the State of Oregon has received his/her ballot by now. So what are your options to make sure that your ballot gets in on time?

1. Mail your ballot in before Friday, January 22nd – After this date, the Postal Service cannot guarantee that it will deliver your ballot on time.

2. Drop your ballot off at an official ballot drop-off site before 8pm on January 26th - If you’re unable to send your ballot in before January 22nd, you can still drop your ballot off at one of many ballot drop-off sites.

To help with the process of finding the closest drop-off site, our Elections Division has created a Ballot Drop Locator, which plots the locations of drop-off sites on an online mapping application. If you’re still having trouble finding a drop-off site, take a look at our County Elections Office guide and give your county’s elections officials a call.

Oregon Student Association Registration Tours

Published on January 6, 2010 in Elections, Road Trips and Secretary Brown. 0 Comments

This is a guest entry from Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown

Today I was lucky enough to be invited by the Oregon Student Association to their press conference in which they announced that they had registered a whopping 14,272 students to vote in just 3 months!

With this incredible accomplishment in mind, I want to share a little bit of what I experience on Monday and Tuesday during this tour of seven of Oregon’s university campuses: PCC Sylvania, PCC Casdcade, Mt. Hood Community College, Portland State University, University of Oregon, Oregon State  and Lane Community College.

The first thing I learned is that the students in this state are not sitting idly by while decisions are made in Salem. These students are showing us what civic engagement is all about.

And you should have seen them! Despite the cold and rainy weather, students were out on the streets of Eugene, Corvallis and Portland, fearlessly engaging their peers. Sometimes even after they had said no, or had walked right past without saying a thing.

They understand that sometimes voter registration comes one person at a time, but that each person they register could be the deciding vote. As someone who won her first race by 7 votes, I let them know just how important each and every voter they registered is, and I have to admit, I got caught up in their enthusiasm.

I was originally asked by the Student Association to talk about the role of students in the voting process during a set of ‘class raps’. We had so much fun with our scheduled raps, which sometimes had as many as 500 students in attendance, that we started up a series of ‘Guerilla Raps’, which were class raps in classrooms where we weren’t scheduled to speak. OSA approached professors and asked for permission and we launched right in. It was a great way to reach out to even more students before the registration deadline.

I also got an opportunity to help the students by hitting the streets and registering voters. We came across all kinds of students from all kinds of backgrounds including a couple of 17 year-olds taking advantage of a recent development in Oregon’s voting law, which allows 17 year-old Oregonians to register to vote in the election following their 18th birthday.

I walked away from the two day tour with a tremendous respect for the students in our great state. I saw an amazing level of dedication from those who took their time out of their busy schedules to volunteer. These volunteers are a credit to our state and will insure that the health of our democracy remains strong for another generation. I also came away with a sense that young people are paying attention to the world around them and that sometimes all it takes is their peers giving them information and they will respond.

I want to thank the Oregon Student Association for this opportunity and congratulate them on a tremendous job well done!

Kate Brown is the Oregon Secretary of State

Questions Arise About Voter’s Pamphlet Arguments

Published on January 5, 2010 in Ballot Initiatives and Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Our Elections Division has received a number of complaints about some of the arguments that made their way into the Voter’s Pamphlet for the upcoming Special Election.

The Albany Democrat Herald explains the stir-up:

The state last week mailed Voters’ Pamphlets to 1.7 million addresses. Backers and opponents paid $500 per statement to the state to have their arguments for and against the measures included.

Kevin Looper of “Our Oregon,” a Portland-based nonprofit, managed to get his arguments supporting the measures — labeled as opposition — placed last in the lineup of arguments against them. He also managed to be first in the opposition column.

This has raised the eyebrows and the ire of a number of Oregon voters, so we wanted to clear any confusion surrounding the process for filing an argument to be placed in the Voter’s Pamphlet and the role of the Secretary of State’s office in that process.

Any individual who files an argument to be printed in the voters’ pamphlet indicates on the filing form whether the argument submitted is in support or opposition to the measure. All arguments are printed in the voters’ pamphlet in the order they are received by our office. Our office then reviews each argument and if it appears that the information regarding a measure number or the designation of whether the argument supports or opposes the measure is incorrect, we contact the author to inquire if they made an error. If the author advises us that it is not an error, we are required to place the argument in the voters’ pamphlet as they have indicated, and in the order received in our office. This process is outlined and dictated by state law in ORS 251.260.

The Secretary of State’s Office does not have the legal authority to verify a given statement’s accuracy nor to edit it for content.

A recent article from the Oregonian provides a little historical background on the topic:

Here’s something to keep in mind: The secretary of state has compiled Voters’ Pamphlets since 1903. It’s a long tradition meant to help the public make important decisions. But, by law, the secretary of state cannot verify the truth and accuracy of statements in the pamphlet.

“We have a pretty strong constitutional protection of free speech in this state,” Secretary of State Kate Brown said Saturday.

Instead of state-issued statements, Brown said the Voters’ Pamphlet provides Oregonians “with a full range of arguments.”

Don’t be surprised if you detect some sarcasm and satire among those statements. The lead-off “argument” in opposition to Measure 66 was submitted by Kevin Looper, who is helping to coordinate the “pro” campaign.

In one of the most outrageous examples, in 2004, the phony “Defense of Heterosexual Breeding Coalition” put a statement in the pamphlet in support of Measure 36, a constitutional amendment recognizing that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

We hope that this clears up any misconceptions that may be out there about this process. If you have any further questions, go ahead and leave us a comment below.

The Cost of Voter Registration

Published on January 5, 2010 in Elections and HAVA. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This month, the Pew Center on the States in Cooperation with the Oregon Secretary of State’s office, released an Oregon Case study on the The Real Cost of Voter Registration. The study looks at the costs incurred at the State, county, city, and township levels of government in Oregon during the 2008 election. The study found that Oregon spent $9.7 million dollars in state, local and federal dollars on voter registration during that election year.

Here are some highlights of where that money was spent:

  • The single biggest expense was $1 million to operate and maintain OCVR, the Oregon Central Voter Registration database, required by federal law and paid for in part with federal money.
  • The state spent $200,000 to print voter registration forms,
  • State agencies spent $2.8 million on voter registration activities
  • Counties spent $6.9 million, most of it in payroll costs.

Being the first state to undertake an honest analysis of these costs is a tremendous learning opportunity for the State of Oregon. As Secretary Brown put it, “It’s important to understand that this is the first statewide registration cost survey. So we have no way of knowing whether our costs are high, low or average compared to other states. We’ll learn more as other states take this on.”

And what did we get in terms of measurable gains in registration with this $9.7 million dollars?

Well, we can start with 76,337 (2.8% of those eligible) new registrants from January 1 to the primary election deadline of April 29 of 2008. Add another 144,957 (5.4% of those eligible) registrants from the primary until the general election deadline for an 8.2% total voter registration jump in just one election cycle. But winning registering new voters is only part of the story, a great deal of resources are dedicated to updating voter registration information to insure their accuracy. This includes any address and phone number changes, party registration, etc. for the 2,153,914 registered voters in the State of Oregon, no small task!

Secretary of State Brown was excited about the results of the study and the opportunity to help streamline the voter registration system in Oregon, starting with the opening of the online voter registration in March of 2010. When asked, she said, “Pew has done a terrific job of analyzing costs from all levels of government. This is the first statewide study of its kind in the country and will be a great help to the other states. Knowing the real costs can help us develop a system that spends less on bureaucracy and registers more eligible voters.”

From The Ballot Box to The Scanner

Published on November 19, 2009 in Elections. 0 Comments Tags: .

Elections are the bedrock of our democracy and something we at the Secretary of State’s Office take very seriously.

As we noted on this blog, there was an election on November 3rd in many of our State’s counties. In talking to elections officials around this special election, I came away with the impression that despite measures to allow for observation of the process by bystanders, officials are still combating the perception that our elections are susceptible to corruption.

In light of this, I took the opportunity to head over to the elections offices in both Clackamas and Washington Counties in order to take a behind the scenes tour of the elections process.

My first trip was to Clackamas County Elections, where I was welcomed by County Clerk Sherry Hall. Below is a slide-show that will take you from ‘your’ ballot being picked up at an official drop-off location, to the ballot being scanned and stored for tabulation.

Authorized Personnel Only!

Authorized Personnel Only!
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The door to the ballot reception/counting room. This room is kept under lock and is only accessible by elections staff.

Continue reading ‘From The Ballot Box to The Scanner’