A 24-hour ballot drop site at the Banks Public Library. Photo: Chas Hundley
The recommended deadline to mail a completed ballot through the United States Postal Service is today, Tuesday, October 27, and all ballots mailed must be received before 8 p.m. on Nov. 3. Oregon does not accept ballots that are received after that time.
“Washington County elections officials are asking voters to use one of these official ballot dropsites as early as possible so all ballots can be processed in a timely manner,” the county said in a press release.
After Oct. 27, ballots should be dropped off at one of the county’s 21 official ballot drop sites or delivered directly to the Washington County Elections office before 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3.
Washington County voters have turned in 173,411 ballots as of 12 p.m. Tuesday, October 27, according to the Washington County Elections office, which represents 44.99% of eligible voters.
Statewide, the office of the Oregon Secretary of State updated totals earlier in the day at 9:04 a.m. Tuesday. At the time, turnout in Oregon sat at 1,371,194 ballots returned out of the nearly 2.95 million eligible voters, for a total turnout of 46.5% thus far.
Broken down by the four largest registered voting groups, as of Tuesday morning, Washington County has 148,786 eligible Democrats, of which 78,408 have voted for a total turnout of 52.7%; 129,396 non-affiliated voters, of which 35,999 have voted, for a turnout of 27.82%, 83,841 Republicans; of which 32,629 have voted for a turnout of 38.92%, and 16,962 Independents, of which 6,738 have voted for a turnout of 39.72%.
Those who have turned in a ballot and are seeking to find out if it has been received by the county elections department should visit Oregonvotes.gov to check the status of their ballot, though it can take between 48 and 72 hours from when a ballot is dropped off at a ballot box — perhaps longer for ballots mailed — to appear in the system.
The Washington County Elections office is located at 2925 NE Aloclek Drive, Suite 170, Hillsboro, OR 97124-7523.
Washington County’s 21 ballot drop sites will close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, with early results announced by the Oregon Secretary of State’s office shortly after.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Banks Post and sister news publications the Gales Creek Journal and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.