Elections officials on Oregon’s North Coast are trying something new.
When the U.S. Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s mail ballot restrictions this week, it cleared the way for states like Oregon to proceed with midterm elections as usual.
But that doesn’t mean the situation is any clearer to voters ahead of November.
So when ballots start to go out next month, Clatsop County Clerk Tracie Krevanko plans to be at the Astoria and Seaside libraries to meet with voters in-person, to answer their questions and explain what election officials actually do.
These are events she’s never really done before, but she said it feels necessary to make the extra push to educate voters.
“Because they’re hearing all different things and because it changes almost daily,” she said. “It can be confusing.”
In Manzanita this week, Tillamook County Clerk Christy Nyseth embarked on a similar education project, hosting the first of two informational sessions she plans to hold in Tillamook County this month.
As with Krevanko, this is a new effort in direct response to the confusion around voting and elections this year.
But Nyseth said that even calmer and more straightforward election years bring their own issues and concerns.
“I always say it depends on the election,” she said.
This election, she is seeing people post on social media that elections are fraudulent. She isn’t sure what part of the election process specifically they consider fraudulent, but she knows the posts are contributing to other people’s confusion and anxiety around elections.
Nyseth encouraged voters to go to trusted sources for information, to reach out to election officials with any questions.
Earlier this month, amid concerns about new U.S. Postal Service regulations regarding mail-in ballots and potential impacts on voters’ ability to cast their ballots in the midterms, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read warned people not to mail their ballots and to use drop boxes instead.
Read requested emergency funds to increase the number of ballot drop-boxes in the state.
Tillamook and Clatsop County were deemed to have enough ballot drop boxes and did not receive any additional ones.
Now that the Supreme Court’s ruling has blocked the Postal Service from enforcing the new regulations, Nyseth and Krevanko say voting by mail remains a good option, but drop boxes are preferred.
“We’re still going to push for drop sites to be your first and foremost line of getting the ballot to us,” Krevanko said.
The clerk’s office picks up ballots from drop sites regularly.
“And nobody else is having to touch them, but yourself — the voter — and us, election workers,” Krevanko said.
In Clatsop County, voters are increasingly using ballot drop boxes as their preferred way to vote anyway. In recent primary and general elections, around 60 to 70% of voters who turned out used drop boxes.
Krevanko expects around 70% of the people who vote in Clatsop County elections this November will bring their ballots to a drop box rather than use the Postal Service.
If a voter is mailing in a ballot, especially if they’re doing so in a tight window of time, Nyseth recommends getting a physical postmark from the post office.
But even before people send or drop off a ballot, Nyseth is asking for patience.
Ballots will start going out in Clatsop and Tillamook counties Oct. 14.
“Allow the post office time to get them to you,” Nyseth said.
If someone still doesn’t have a ballot by Oct. 19, they should contact the county clerk, she said.
And when it comes to making sure election workers correctly process someone’s ballot: “We’re doing everything we can to make sure that it counts,” Krevanko said.
That includes checking the signature on each ballot, making sure it matches what the office has on record. If the signatures don’t match, that means notifying the voter and giving them time to address any discrepancies.
“We want to err on the side of the voter,” Krevanko said. “The voter has the decision. And it’s their vote. It’s not my vote. So it needs to be counted the way they want it to be counted.”
Krevanko has overseen elections in Clatsop County and elsewhere for more than 30 years, but she still looks forward to every election.
“I enjoy every election, believe it or not,” she said, “even with the stress ramping up. And then it’s like we’re done, we did it. It’s very gratifying, I think, for the whole office to realize we did this and we’re able to get it done and then do it right.”
Here’s more information about elections in Clatsop County and Tillamook County and ways to access livestreams of ballot processing or even sign up for text alerts.