The Oregon Secretary of State’s office says more than 50,000 new voters have been added to the rolls thanks to the state’s new motor voter law.
Whether that translates to a high turnout for the May 17th primary remains to be seen. Lane County Clerk Cheryl Betschart says so far about 21% of voters have turned in ballots.
“We would expect and plan for possibly 60 to 64 percent turnout,” Betschart says. “But every election is unique and so we really don’t know for sure what voters are going to do but we certainly know that there’s a lot of interest in this election so we would expect the ballot returns to increase all the way from now through election day at 8 o’clock.”
At this point, Betschart recommends voters hand-deliver ballots at official county drop boxes or elections offices in order to make sure they get counted. All ballots must be received by 8 p.m. Tuesday May 17th.
Betschart says the U.S. Postal Service has informed County Elections offices that processing ballots can take 5-7 days.
So, she recommended that if people mail in their ballots Wednesday May 11th would be the latest day to do so and ensure that they’re received in time to be counted.
Copyright 2016 KLCC
