Oregon Democrats enthusiastic for 2020 election, 36% already returned ballots

Election 2020

A man on a bike drops off his ballot at a Multnomah County ballot box at Pioneer Square within days of ballots being mailed. In less than a week, Oregon's 36% of Oregon's registered Democrats had their voted logged at their local election offices, shattering recent records. Sean Meagher/Staff

More than one of every three registered Democrats in Oregon turned in a ballot early enough to have it officially logged at their county elections office by the close of business Wednesday, an Oregonian/OregonLive analysis of new state figures shows.

That compares to just under one of every four registered Republicans and 16% of voters not affiliated with either of the major parties.

Voters still have 12 more days to turn in ballots before they are tallied on Nov. 3.

(Update: As of the end of the day Thursday, election officials had logged ballots from 44% of registered Democrats and 30% of Republicans, leading to a total voter ballot return rate of 301%)

As of Wednesday, 25% of the state’s registered voters had gotten their ballots to election offices. That compares with just 13% who had gotten ballots in by the same point in the 2016 election.

Democrats and Republicans always vote at higher rates than people registered with smaller parties or the larger number not affiliated with any party at all.

It is unusual, however, for Democrats and Republicans to have turnout vary by more than a few percentage points, and Republicans in Oregon traditionally have slightly higher early turnout.

But President Donald Trump appears to have motivated a whole new phenomenon: Democrats, particularly in blue strongholds of Multnomah, Benton and Hood River counties, have rushed to return their ballots this year.

More than 123,000 Multnomah County Democratic voters – or 41% -- had their ballots logged by the close of business Wednesday. In Benton County, 46% did.

Multnomah County Republicans had a 28% ballot return rate by that time.

Republicans showed their highest early voting rate in Curry County, where 37% had ballots logged as cast by the end of Wednesday. But Democrats in that county were the biggest early voters in the state, with 50% of their ballots logged by Wednesday.

Coronavirus concerns and fears that slower service from the U.S. Postal Service might delay ballot delivery are also contributing to the pattern of earlier balloting in Oregon, election watchers have said.

-- Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com; @OregonianPol

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