The secretary of state’s office estimated late Tuesday night that about 47 percent of Oregon registered voters cast their ballots in this year’s primary election, which was Oregon’s first state and presidential primary election to be exclusively vote-by-mail.
That figure is up from the paltry 37 percent turnout in this November’s special election and the highest turnout since the 1992 primary, in which 49.1 percent of registered voters weighed in.
Annette Newingham, Lane County chief elections officer, said the turnout was encouraging for a primary election.
“We don’t get 70-80 percent turnout in primary elections,” she said.
Elections experts say voter turnout always varies depending upon voters’ emotional attachments to candidates and issues on the ballot, but they also notice a decline in voting due to diminished confidence in government and elected officials.
College-aged voters have significantly retreated from the polls — only about 8 percent of registered Oregon voters aged 19-25 voted in the May 1998 biennial primary election.
“I’ve heard from students that they don’t feel they are represented and that they don’t have a lot of respect for our elected officials,” ASUO State Affairs Coordinator Arlie Adkins said.
The ASUO and several other state and local organizations have been striving to boost voter registration and participation on campus and throughout Oregon, and such efforts have been successful this year, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Adkins said the ASUO’s campaign was “a little more low-key” than expected because many candidates didn’t face significant opposition and most issues on the ballot wouldn’t have lent themselves well to debates on campus.
Nonetheless, the ASUO registered roughly 400 students in the past few months. The bulk of the registrations occurred May 1 when the ASUO invited a handful of Oregon politicians — including U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, and state Rep. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene — to help flag down students near the EMU Amphitheater and compel them to register.
Adkins said the ASUO will accelerate its registration campaign in the months leading into the November general election.
Statewide, organizations such as Student Vote 2000 and the secretary of state’s office contributed to the relatively high turnout by encouraging students and their parents to cast their ballots, said Amy Cody, aid to the secretary of state.
The so called “double majority” rule, passed by voters in 1996 and 1997 to require at least a 50 percent voter turnout to pass certain property tax measures, also contributed to increased turnout as vested interests, such as school districts, have compelled Oregonians to vote, Cody said.
Though critics of vote-by-mail, such as state Rep. Tony Corcoran, D-Cottage Grove, say a hybrid of vote-by-mail and polling places would increase turnout, elections officials say polling in Lane County would cost at least $175,000 to staff and do little to boost turnout.