I will readily admit that there are many details of the electoral system in Oregon that I haven’t taken the time to understand. I’m not sure why this election is happening now, or why these particular initiatives made it onto the ballot, or how it is that there can be a voter-led ballot measure to amend the state Constitution (!) to establish a new tax on cigarettes. What I do understand is that voting here is ridiculously easy, and that voter participation is uniformly very high:
The turnout in presidential elections has been close to 80 percent, and the turnout in off-year gubernatorial elections has been close to 70 percent.
In the 2004 election, a presidential year, 86.5 percent of registered Oregon voters cast ballots.
Compare that to a “battleground” state like Ohio 2004, where only 71% of registered voters cast a ballot.
We got our ballots in the mail on Saturday. There were three issues on them- measure 49, measure 50, and an urban renewal tax on businesses in downtown Springfield. It took me all of five minutes to read the measures, vote my ballot, put it back in the envelope and seal it. We could put stamps on them and mail them back, but I’ll probably drop them both off and save the stamps because there is a certified drop-box near school.
Tell me again why the rest of the US doesn’t do this?
Oh, right- because GOP political success depends on criminal vote suppression, rather than encouraging turnout.
