Oregon lawmaker worries some mailed votes may arrive late

SALEM, Ore. — Voters in Oregon mail in their ballots or leave them in official boxes, but a Republican state lawmaker said Friday more mailed votes may arrive past deadline because of U.S. Postal Service cutbacks that have slowed mail delivery in rural — and primarily Republican — areas.

Sen. Brian Boquist wrote to Elections Director Steve Trout on Friday, saying he’d like to know how many late ballots arrive at county clerks’ offices after the 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline.

Boquist said that after vote-by-mail was adopted in 1998, completed ballots mailed in his hometown of Dallas, Ore., were sorted at the post office and were usually delivered to the county clerk’s office to be counted the next day.

Now, it can take several days, since the mail is sent to postal facilities in Portland to be sorted, causing some ballots to arrive in county clerks’ offices after the deadline.

“This disenfranchises the voters,” Boquist said, adding that ballots mailed from Portland — a heavily Democratic area — have less risk of arriving late in the mail.

Boquist suggested Oregon might have to move to a system where ballots postmarked before the deadline are valid, like tax returns.