OR-1: Special election dates set

Kari Chisholm

Governor John Kitzhaber announced late tonight that he had received the formal letter of resignation from Congressman David Wu.

The letter from Wu was handwritten. View a copy here.

The Governor further announced that the special primary election will be held on November 8, with a special general election on January 31.

A special primary election will be held on November 8, 2011 and a special general election will be held on January 31, 2012. The Secretary of State’s Office will be releasing details of the special election process.

“I have received a letter of resignation from Congressman David Wu and am working with the Secretary of State's office on a special election process,” said Governor Kitzhaber. “Holding both a primary and general election allows the voters of the First Congressional District full participation in selecting a replacement.”

One awesome side benefit of this special election is that the rest of the country is going to get a bit more up-to-speed on how elections work in Oregon. Namely, our unique vote-by-mail system and our "fusion lite" system.

So, for you out-of-towners, here's how it works:

• We have regular partisan closed-primary elections. Democrats vote for the Democratic nominee. Republicans for the Republican nominee. Minor parties have nominating conventions. (In 2010, for the first time, the Independent Party of Oregon held an electronic primary. Yes, "Independent" is a party here. Voters without a party are called "non-affiliated voters" or NAVs.)

• In the general election, our "fusion lite" system allows candidates to be nominated by multiple parties. They are listed on the ballot once, however, with multiple party labels - e.g. "John Kitzhaber; Democrat, Independent" (This is in contrast to New York's fusion system in which each party has a ballot line and voters can select whether they're voting for someone as the Democrat or the Liberal, etc.)

• Voter registration deadline is 21 days before election day.

• All ballots are mailed to voters, 18 days before election day. Yes, that means that "election day" lasts for nearly three weeks.

• Voters must return them to county elections offices, or to official drop boxes (here's a map!), by 8 p.m. on election day. Postmarks don't count. (That means that late voters can't mail their ballots. This is different than how it works in other places; most notably, Washington.)

• Voters can, if they prefer or if they need help, go to a county elections office to cast their ballot.

• Completed ballots are placed inside a sealed "secrecy envelope", which is then placed inside a sealed mailing envelope. The mailing envelope has a barcode on it identifying the voter, and is signed by the voter. The ballots themselves are fill-in-the-bubble paper ballots. No electronic voting nonsense in Oregon.

• Every single signature is checked against voter records. (Not a sample.) If a signature doesn't match, the voter is notified and asked to visit county elections to provide ID and sign again.

• As signatures are checked and ballots are logged-in, elections officials release the records of who has voted. Campaigns use this information to do GOTV of previously-identified supporters. Pollsters use that data to conduct polls of voters who have already voted.

• Years ago, voters would vote early with just a few ballots trickling in on election day. Lately, we've seen a small initial bump - and then a giant surge as procrastinating voters get their ballots in over the final weekend.

• No ballots are counted until election day. But they do start counting the morning of election day. Slight correction, thanks to Multnomah County Elections director Tim Scott: A new law, in use since January 2010, allows counties to start counting ballots seven days out - provided that they have a detailed security plan in place and approved by the Secretary of State.

• Consequently, initial results reported at 8 p.m. tend to reflect those voters who mailed in their ballots. Results later in the evening, and into the next day, tend to reflect drop-box voters. And yes, that means that final weekend GOTV efforts can mean late-reporting votes are different than early-reporting votes. (Often, trending somewhat more Democratic.)

• In recent close elections - Merkley/Smith 2008 and Kitzhaber/Dudley 2010 - results were not known until Thursday morning. This is no longer a surprise. Memo to out-of-town journalists and GOTV campaigners paratrooping in: Don't schedule post-election departures until Friday.

Any questions?

Update, 8/4: There's been some ongoing confusion (see here and in comments below) about whether the old maps or the new maps apply. The language of the redistricting law (SB 990) seems plainly to call for the new maps, and yet the Elections Division says the old maps apply. I've finally gotten some clarity - and it requires VERY close reading of the law. SB 990 says that the new maps apply to "the primary election as provided in ORS chapter 249". The word "the" is critical here, as is the reference to "249". The primary election in ORS 249 is the regular 2012 primary election. The special election that will be conducted this fall is governed by ORS 188. Whew.

By Kari Chisholm Aug. 03, 2011