Fewer than half of registered voters in the Salem area had returned their ballots as of Monday, Nov. 2, the eve of Oregon's general election.
Just over 40% of ballots had been returned in Marion and Polk counties by Monday afternoon, Salem Reporter first reported. County clerks are expecting a surge of last-minute returns before the 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3, deadline.
Election officials are urging voters who still have ballots at home to use drop boxes rather than mail. The Oregon Secretary of State's office strongly encourages voters to return ballots at official drop sites. Voters who are in line at a drop box at 8 p.m. on Election Day may still drop off their ballot, according to the state's drop box locator page.
Drop boxes matter because mailed ballots in Oregon can take up to a week to process through the postal system, Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess told Salem Reporter on Oct. 29. Voters have been choosing drop boxes over the mail. On Oct. 28, the Marion County Clerk's office received 10,678 ballots, and 7,314 came from drop boxes, Burgess told Salem Reporter.
Salem voters face contested races for local, county and state offices on this ballot.
Burgess told Salem Reporter that Marion County was already 14,000 votes ahead of where it stood at the same point before the 2022 general election.
Ballots mailed rather than dropped off must be postmarked by Election Day and received by the county elections office no later than seven days after the election to be counted, according to the Secretary of State's office. Unofficial results will be posted at results.oregonvotes.gov shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday. Final results will be certified Dec. 10.
