Bob Billings has lived in the same house in Leaburg for 76 years, but he recently had to change his address in order to be able to vote next Tuesday.
About 90 residents of the town of Leaburg, 20 miles east of Springfield, and less than 50 in Culp Creek, 35 miles south of Springfield, have not received ballots for next week’s election, and this week they realized why: all of their addresses had been changed by the post office, and anyone who didn’t change their voter registration cards did not get a ballot in the mail.
“Where’s my ballot?” Billings asked, after reading in the Register-Guard that 16 percent of Lane County’s ballots had been returned undeliverable. Under Oregon election law, ballots can not be forwarded.
Leaburg’s post office closed about 10 years ago, and residents had been using community mailboxes on the side of the road. But those boxes had to be removed in August because of the construction of a new fire station.
The postal service donated some of the removed boxes to the residents of Leaburg Road. Residents pooled resources and erected the boxes – the same ones they had received mail in for decades – in a different roadside location. But the boxes now had to be labeled with home addresses instead of the old post office box numbers. They had to redirect all correspondence to their home addresses, which were, effectively, the same old post office boxes.
“When you move you expect it,” resident Kathy Thomas said. “But when you haven’t gone anywhere and it’s an entire community you’d think someone could have been more creative than that.”
Kerry Jeffrey, customer relations coordinator for the postal service, said it’s more common than some might think for the postal service to need to change all of the addresses in a community.
“We did work with them to come up with some resolutions,” Jeffrey said. “We didn’t turn them over and say, ‘Go figure it out yourself.’ These folks will be able to vote. They just have a short time to update their voter registration.”
Lane County Elections issued a press release that said residents should immediately send a notice by mail requesting that the post office box address be removed and replaced with a street address. Residents will also need to request a ballot.
Requests must be received in writing by this Friday. Voters also have the option of dropping by the elections office at 275 W. 10th Ave. in Eugene. The office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Thomas said some residents, such as her parents, are old and might not make it in time unless they have a relative to help them.
“I was so hoping somebody would for God’s sakes come out and register us,” she said.
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