To help Oregon residents get a head start on reading this year’s general election voter’s pamphlet, which will surpass many Oregon phone books in size, the secretary of state’s office posted all the material on the Internet this week.
Hard copies of the pamphlet are due to be mailed Oct. 11, and the secretary of state’s office hopes the early Internet release will give voters more time to study election issues.
Only information on the state measures is available at the site right now, but the office plans to add the candidate information when the print copy of the voter’s guide is released on Oct. 18.
The pamphlet, at www.oregonvotes.com, will spare voters the task of thumbing through the 376-page printed voter’s pamphlet, to be mailed out on Oct. 11, said Paddy McGuire, chief of staff for the secretary of state’s office.
“It’s about as long as the Eugene-Springfield white pages, and it’s the first voter’s pamphlet to be bound like a phone book,” he said.
McGuire said the pamphlet was placed online because of its size and to inform voters living outside the state.
“On the very first day the site was up, we received an e-mail from an Oregonian living in Scotland who found a problem with one of the site’s links,” McGuire said. “That’s pretty instantaneous results that folks all over the globe are using it.” McGuire added that the problem was quickly solved.
Every registered voter will still be receiving a copy of the voter’s guide, so there won’t be any reduced cost from posting the pamphlet on the Internet. But McGuire said the secretary of state’s office received non-profit bulk rate postage from the post office and will save money through that reduced rate. He said the state saved approximately $700,000 through the rate, which reduced mailing costs from $1.2 million to about $450,000.
Annette Newingham, Lane County elections manager, said the information online will help voters understand the issues, but couldn’t say whether or not that will improve voter turnout.
“I’m not really sure if that’s going to be a factor,” she said.
Information on the two Lane County bond measures — 20-38 and 20-39 for a forest work camp for minor offenders and jail improvements — is available at the Lane County Web site: www.co.lane.or.us.
Brian Tanner, the state affairs coordinator for the ASUO, said the Web site should help students find voter information. He added that the ASUO will be putting together its own guide about measures that will have a direct effect on higher education; as for other state measures, the Web site would be a better source than the bulky pamphlet.
“I don’t think any student in their right mind with all the other reading they have to do anyway would look through [the voter’s pamphlet],” he said.