A freshly painted ballot drop box in Forest Grove. Photo: Chas Hundley
Washington County voters have turned in 243,120 ballots as of 4:30 p.m. Thursday, October 29, according to the Washington County Elections office, which represents about 63.01% of eligible voters in the county.
Broken down by the four largest registered voting groups, as of the statewide county on Thursday morning (which does not reflect the more recently updated totals directly from Washington County), Washington County had 148,856 eligible Democrats, of which 106,040 have voted for a total turnout of 71.24%; 129,461 non-affiliated voters, of which 57,417 have voted, for a turnout of 44.35%, 83,893 Republicans; of which 50,714 have voted for a turnout of 60.45%, and 16,992 Independents, of which 10,055 have voted for a turnout of 59.17%.
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.
Election Officials say it’s too late to drop your ballot in the mail and have any certainty it’ll arrive at the county elections office in time, so head over to one of Washington County’s 21 official ballot drop sites — some of which are open 24 hours a day — and slide your envelope on in.
Oregon does not accept postmarked ballots after November 3 at 8 p.m. If you risk voting by mail at this juncture, you risk throwing away your vote.
Chas Hundley is the editor of the Gales Creek Journal and sister news publications the Banks Post and the Salmonberry Magazine. He grew up in Gales Creek and has a cat.
