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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (June 4, 2020)
12 community/classified ads june4 2020 Official Addresses Voter Registration Confusion continued from front page County. “Every complaint I receive, I take seriously and I investigate it,” says Clack. He says this year, he found one instance where a voter’s registra- tion card, signed prior to the year 2000, showed the voter registered as a Demo- crat, but the County had them as unaf- filiated. The voter had never noticed it in over 20 years. “It was a user error on our part,” said Clack, but that was the only complaint Clack says he could sub- stantiate as a clerk error. Clack says he did not log the number of complaints he received this year, but that it was “sig- nificant.” Oregon’s Motor Voter program took effect in January 2016, and mod- ernized voter registration in Oregon by providing a secure, simple, and conve- nient way for more Oregonians to be- come registered voters. Under the old system, most Oregonians needed to take a separate step to register to vote at the DMV after obtaining or renewing their driver license. Motor Voter makes voter registration automatic, shifting from an opt-in process to an opt-out process. After a qualifying interaction (when an unregistered voter over 16 years old, an Oregon resident, and a U.S. citizen visits the DMV to apply for, renew, or replace an Oregon drivers’ license, ID card, or permit) at the DMV, eligible Oregonians receive a mailing from the Oregon Elec- tions Division explaining their options for registering to vote: • Do nothing. You will be registered to vote as a nonaffiliated voter (not a mem- ber of a political party). • Choose a political party by returning the card. Joining a political party allows you to vote in its primary elections. • Use the card to opt-out and decline to register to vote. Clack says people who do not respond to the mailing from the Oregon Elections Division and end up registered as unaffiliated, are often the people who file complaints with his office. “If the Secretary of State’s office does not re- ceive that mailer, then by default people are registered as unaffiliated, the state does not choose a party for them.” Clack says all Columbia County ballots that are returned go through a validation and acceptance process, with signatures hand-checked against the sig- nature card on file for the voter. If the signature does not match those voters receive a letter which prompts the voter to update their signature sample. They have two weeks after the election to pro- vide an updated signature that matches for the ballot to be counted. He said in the last election 75 ballots were rejected because the signature did not match. Clack said if voters do not feel comfortable using Vote-By-Mail, they can request a replacement ballot, pick it up at the County Office, fill it out there, and vote in person. Clack says Motor Voter has in- creased voter registration figures in Co- lumbia County. When he took over as Election Manager in 2016 there were about 30,000 registered voters; this last election it was just over 39,000. “Voter turnout, by percentage, has dropped be- cause we now have a higher denomina- tor, but those numbers are now starting to increase. People want to get involved in the process, but they just don’t under- stand how the registration works.” Oregon Republican Secretary of State Bev Clerno’s office, which over- sees voter registration, also dismissed claims that voter’s registration had been changed without their consent. “We don’t change party unless requested by the voter,” said spokesperson Andrea Chiapella in an Oregonian article look- ing into the issue. “So even if they were inactive for a time, it would not revert to (non-partisan) for any reason other than the voter requesting that change.” In Vernonia’s Voice is published on the 1 st and 3 rd Thursday. Look for our next issue on June 18. fact, Clarno’s office recently took a fur- ther step and alerted social media com- panies about the spreading of misinfor- mation about voter registration issues on their platforms, including the Facebook group “My Party Was Changed in Or- egon.” For the May 2020 election 12,235 of Columbia County voters were registered as Democrats, 10,474 as Re- publicans, and 16,488 were unaffiliated. The County had a 48.26% participation rate in this election, with Democratic voters returning 41.18% of their ballots, Republicans returning 35.13%, and only 23.69% of unaffiliated voters’ ballots returned. Expect to see a much higher turnout in the 2020 general election in November; in the 2016 November elec- tion 78.73% of Columbia County voters participated. Clack did say that he has re- ceived numerous requests to change voter’s party registration. Between the Friday prior to the election and when we spoke to him on May 28, Clack said about 250 voters in Columbia County changed their affiliation. “It’s really just an education issue,” says Clack. He suggests that voters who have questions about their registration go to Secretary of State’s webpage https://sos.oregon.gov/voting/ Pages/myvote.aspx?lang=en to see how they are registered, and change their af- filiation if they would like to. If you have concerns about your ballot contact Columbia County Elec- tions Manager at (503) 397-8445 or email donald.clack@columbiacountyor. gov. Don’t Sell it! Pawn it! CLASSIFIED ADS For fast cash! FOR SALE 4-Plex, Good Investment Property – $199,000 Two 2-bed apts, one large 1-bed apt, one small 1-bed apt. By the river & lake, lots of storage, garage with attic, laundry facility on site. 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