Oregonians can keep track of their ballot’s whereabouts and know when election officials accept it for counting with a new statewide digital tool.
Voters in Clackamas, Marion, Multnomah, Yamhill and Washington counties have long had access to BallotTrax, a tool that provides text, email or phone updates when ballots are mailed to voters, received at their county elections office and accepted for counting. This election, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office is expanding the program statewide with $150,000 in new state funding.
To sign up for the service, Oregonians can go toOregonVotes.gov/Track. They’ll need to provide their ZIP code, date of birth and first and last name.
“Every voter in Oregon, no matter where they live, deserves the same access to their ballot and the same confidence that their vote counts,” Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read said in a statement. “This tool gives voters a quick, easy, and secure way to track their ballot through the process and get alerted if there are any issues with their signature on their ballot. This is a great upgrade for voters and for Oregon’s gold standard vote-by-mail elections.”
Read has also encouraged Oregonians to go to a drop box to turn in their ballots rather than relying upon the mail. That’s because of changes to Postal Service procedures that mean mail will be sent to a hub in Portland and postmarked, then sent to its destination. In recent elections, Oregon voters have been able to trust that a ballot dropped in a mailbox before mail carriers pick up mail on Election Day would be postmarked that day and therefore counted, but that’s no longer the case
Along with funding for BallotTrax, the Legislature approved more than $1 million to add 20 new drop boxes across the state, support county election offices and pay for mailing notices to inactive voters who don’t receive ballots unless and until they update their addresses or other incorrect information.
Election Day is Nov. 3, and all ballots must be postmarked or returned to a ballot box or county elections office by 8 p.m. Voters relying on mail should return their ballots by Oct. 27 or go in person to their post office to ask for a manual postmark.
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