Most Of Oregon’s Newly Registered Voters Won’t Be Able To Participate In The State’s Primary
Oops.
For decades, Oregon has been at the forefront of making it easier to vote. Two decades ago, the state began offering each and every eligible resident the option to vote by mail. Oregon later became the first to conduct all its elections by mail. Then, in 2015, Oregon became the first state in the nation to automatically register voters every time they visit a Department of Motor Vehicles.
The new “Motor Voter” policy has added more than 67,000 new voters to the state’s voter rolls, and officials are hoping Tuesday’s primary will have record turnout. The new system has especially been a boon for young voters; since September, the number of registered voters between the ages of 18 and 29 has increased 21 percent.
Yet thousands of voters who received ballots in the mail over the past few weeks may have been surprised to learn they can’t cast a vote in the presidential primaries. Oregon operates closed primaries, meaning that only registered Democrats can decide between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and only registered Republicans can decide between Donald Trump and the ghosts of Ted Cruz and John Kasich, who have already bowed out of the race. Under the new DMV system, voters are automatically registered as “unaffiliated,” and later receive a form in the mail giving them the option to change their party affiliation or opt out entirely. The vast majority — 76 percent — did not take that extra step by the late April deadline, and thus can’t participate in the presidential primary. They will still be able to vote in some local races.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/05/16/3778610/oregon-closed-primary/
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