Friday, May 2, 2008

Last minute voting registration change could lead to your vote not counting

Okay, that's a tad melodramatic, but it got your attention. And, technically, it's true--if you don't pay attention to your mail.

The burgeoning Democratic voter rolls in Oregon produced one teeny possible snag (if you don't count inevitable GOP voter suppression efforts to come): According to a story that KGW is running this morning, some last-minute registration changes may have come in after election officials already sent voter rolls to the printer.

[…]so those ballots will go out in the mail with the voters' previous party.

Later, voters will get the ballot from the correct party.

According to the Oregon Secretary of State's Office, it's alright if voters fill out both ballots since the state database will catch the mistake. […]

However, if voters send in only the out-of-date ballot, the votes in the partisan races will get tossed out.


According to the Washington County Democratic Party office, the out-of-date ballot (which probably will arrive first) will be marked Registered and the correct ballot (which will arrive shortly thereafter) will be marked Re-registered.

So let's recap. Assuming you changed your registration at the last minute from Republican or non-affiliated to Democrat (it won't affect people registering for the first time):

Complete and mail in the "Registered" ballot: Good.

Complete and mail in both the "Registered" and "Re-registered" ballots: Pointless but still okay.

Complete and mail the "Registered" ballot but not the "Re-Registered" ballot: Bad.

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