Our household’s completed ballots inside, envelopes are ready on Oct. 23 to go in the mail the following day.
Say what you want about Oregon’s elections by mail, it takes no effort to take part. And if you miss the old days as I do — traipsing to the neighborhood polling place on election day — we’re just out of luck.
That part of participatory democracy, taking your kid along to the polls to demonstrate how voting is done, that part is forever lost.
In Benton County our ballots came in the mail on Saturday. By dinner time the boxes were filled in, the ballots put in their envelopes, and the envelopes signed and put aside to be mailed first thing Monday.
So here’s a hint to all those that have been filling our mailboxes with campaign propaganda: You can stop now.
Not that those slick messages on stiff oversize paper had an effect on any citizen who has been halfway awake over the last couple of years and followed what our state and federal governments have been up to.
We all saw what our state officials and agencies did or didn’t do during the Covid epidemic. We know what the people in charge at the federal level have done or not done since, and what the result has been: Inflation generally and fuel prices that, in combination, have made everyone poorer.
So no matter how much campaign mail comes our way, don’t expect us to forget what we’ve seen.
Four state measures are on the ballot. One would create health care as a civil right with unknown ramifications for state spending. The second falsely claims that the constitution allows slavery — it doesn’t — and pretends to fix that non-problem with a mess of weasel words.
The third tries to fortify one-party rule in the legislature by punishing walk-outs. And the fourth would abridge an existing civil right by requiring government pemission to buy a gun.
When ballot measures are the least bit questionable, as these are, the best rule of thumb is to vote “no.”
So, there are no hard choices on this ballot. If in one office or another, you don’t know or can’t stand any of the candidates, leave it blank or write your own name in.
You can finish this ballot in less than a minute. I did, and while election day on Nov. 8 is still two weeks away, for me it’s over now.(hh)
Thanks Hasso: I did the same, and appreciate (and agree with) your insights on the four ballot measures. I voted by proxy (through my Mom) for John Kennedy in 1960; again in 1980 for a Eugene Libertarian presidential candidate (and even went to the national convention in Denver as an Oregon delegate); and voted against Biden in 2020 — so this is my fourth time (third legal) voting in 74 years. This time I’m voting against Oregon Democrats and New York residents.
Measure 112 is a feel-good, largely symbolic, reform.
Symbolism is important given Oregon’s shameful racist past. I’d vote YES on that basis alone.
If the worst consequence is that all prison work becomes voluntary, so be it.
And if a convict chooses not to work, let them rot in their prison cell for 21 hours a day.
Next up: Change the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to remove the “slavery & involuntary servitude” loophole.
Thankfully, the broad electorate is not as retrograde as our esteemed author.
I love mail in voting. Poll workers are in short supply in most states and long lines and gas prices make it a hardship on some voters.
If you don’t exercise your right to vote in Oregon it is laziness. So many new laws in other states have many times made the process harder or more confusing .
Oregon thanks to Linn County got it right years ago. You want to teach kids about the power of the vote than start teaching Civics again in schools.
I’ve been non-affiliated since 2006. I do remember and much enjoyed getting in line and voting at LBCC for years. That said, it’s seemingly unconscionable that people can’t be bothered to vote-by-mail (at no cost) and exercise a freedom most countries do not have.
My ballot was mailed Friday afternoon… Albeit slowly, the campaign literature will slow down because of that. The measures themselves? Many are very common-sense and should have been taken care a generation or more ago.
Well said!
Mail-in voting should be introduced in all states. Some can’t vote on a working day, if nothing else the Election Day should be a free holiday for all Americans celebrating our independence and the right to vote.
Totally agree. Got my ballot Saturday and dropped it off at the drop off at courthouse. And I know I’ll get hated,but I voted Blue and will till the True Republican standard is back. The last few years was Nuts.
“Stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
Yup! Voted. Dropped it off. ZERO Right Wing Nut Jobs hanging out to intimidate.
Thank God! …But where is my sticker? My “I just voted” sticker?
Probably at past life polling center.
It’s all okay. I’ll easily pass on a sticker for the ease of mail in voting.
Or drop box voting.
Cheers!
Hasso, I also miss going to the polls to vote. I did take my children with me so they could see how important it was. I never mail my ballot, I drop it off in that box behind the courthouse. In past years I would wait until election day to drop it off so I could cast my vote on that day
…and taking a kid to the elections office on 3rd (in neighbouring Linn County) is still a good lesson.