Through the end of yesterday, 29% of Oregon ballots have been returned

[swag]

Oregon is Vote by Mail.

http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/nov22004/g04_balret.xls

Shows a few things:

. county-by-county ballots returned

. Voters have returned 29% of outstanding ballots

. this is 6% greater than at this point in the 2000 cycle.

I suspect that some counties, my own (Multnomah) included, are reporting ballots actually processed rather than envelopes returned.

GO OREGON, GOTV!

p.s. - As we all know, as the percentages head higher, the state becomes more impervious to any "October surprises." In other words, this is one former "swing-state" that is more solidly in Kerry's pocket with each passing moment.

[napi21]

1. Don't they count anything until 1/2? I thought I might see some

indication that the early voting was leaning one way or the other.

[central scrutinizer]

4. they do count, but jealously guard the results

until the polls close - they have white drop boxes around town and at precisely 8:00 Pacific time, they are all emptied and the boxes are then locked. Postmarks don't count - the ballot must be received at the local elections office before 8 on election day. If you wait until the last minute to vote, you must hand deliver it to one of those boxes or the county elections office.

[gratuitous]

5. They don't begin tabulating the ballots

But the number of ballots returned is a matter of public record. The votes won't start getting counted until the official closing of the polls at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Anyone in line at that time will be allowed to cast their ballot. Anyone who shows up after 8 p.m. will be turned away.

[central scrutinizer]

2. at least 35% returned in Lane County

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/10/26/d3.cr.ballots.1026.html

With the election still a week away, more than one-third of registered voters in Lane County already have cast their ballots.
At the close of business Tuesday, Lane County Elections had received 75,188 ballots, representing 35 percent of the county's 211,369 registered voters.

Statewide, counties had received ballots from 24 percent of voters - 498,000 ballots - through the weekend, compared with a bit less than 18 percent at the same point before the November 2000 election.

[swag]

7. This makes me smile (Eugene, and not so much anti-gay Springfield)

I love Eugene for a couple of things, its politics being one of them.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. Any indication of percentage registered Dem vs. Repub voters?

This info was not in the spreadsheet...

[swag]

9. No, not on ballots having been returned,

though county-by-county can be sort of guessed at based on this:

http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/votreg/04mvr.htm

It only goes through August. ACT, unions, Sierra Club, ground-war DNC, and of course Dems-in-the-trash Republican fraud registration efforts really accelerated in September and October.

A conservative (excuse me) estimate has it that new Dem registrations outstripped new Rep registrations by 20,000.

Multnomah county, the most populous, has a D to R ratio of more than 2 to 1. Lane County (Eugene, etc.) is also good for Dems.

Multnomah County has saved Oregon from an ass-load of anti-gay initiatives and other extremely bad ballot measures and candidates. Unfortunately this year, it looks like the idiots will prevail and our Constitution will be amended to prohibit gay marriages.

But as we all know, this is not the end of that fight, which we will utltimately win.

[Bandit]

6. But they are missing out on all the intimidation tactics

Or on finding parking spots or standing in long lines and finally receiving the ballot and finding things on it that they never heard of. Boy are those Oregonite stupid. :crazy: They should be at the polls like smart people are.

[swag]

8. Yeah, we're fucked on that count.

We toughen our knuckles all year hitting Willamette-dredged concrete walls with our full might, then we're forced to the full-pussy move of voting by mail.