In Oregon, Turnout is Down, But Especially in Red Counties
Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Uniquely among the 50 states, Oregon conducts the entirety of its voting by mail, which among other things can provide early clues as to what the electoral battlefield might look like elsewhere in the country.

Surprisingly, perhaps, turnout is down this year in Oregon. According to statistics compiled by the state's Elections Division, the state has received 522,188 ballots through the first seven days of its early voting window. This compares with 645,473 ballots received during the first seven days of 2004 -- a 19 percent decline.


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Maybe they're confused on matching Ceara to her real name.

The postal workers tend to be better armed than the election riggers.

There's a cheesy 7:37 educational video on Oregon's vote-by-mail process at:

http://www.mcelections.org/

(click on the link above the video tape icon).

Simply put:

1. Ballots are mailed to registered voters.
2. Voters fill out the ballots, put them in the bar-coded return envelope, and sign the envelope.
3. Election officials review the envelope:
a. If unsigned, and time allowing, they mail them back and tell the voter they forgot to sign it.
b. If signed, the signature is verified against the signature on the voter registration card. If not kosher, it's not counted.

This review process is done over a period of two or more weeks as the ballots arrive, so it's not a rush job. Except, of course, the last day, as plenty of people prefer to do it "the old-fashioned way", and drop their ballots off at drop sites.

There has been no controversy since it was approved in 1998.

To commit voter fraud, one would have to:

1. create convincing false voter registrations based on false IDs and unique, valid, physical (can't be "Mailboxes are Us") mailing addresses, and then
2. follow through when the actual ballots arrive, linking up those same false signatures with each valid, physical mailing address without drawing any attention to the scheme.

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As to the low voter turnout so far, maybe since Oregon's gone even "Bluer" than ever, the Democrats are sanguine, and the Republicans are demoralized.

That said, I'm perplexed because the Smith-Merkley U.S. Senate contest is close, and nasty...maybe the nastiness has also turned off additional voters who are not sanguine or demoralized?