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East Oregonian
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Saturday, November 3, 2018
Lawmaker worries some mailed votes may arrive late
clerks’ offices after the 8
p.m. Tuesday deadline.
Boquist said that after
vote-by-mail was adopted
in 1998, completed ballots
mailed in his hometown of
Dallas were sorted at the
local post office and were
usually delivered to the
county clerk’s office to be
counted the next day.
Now, it can take several
days, since the mail is sent
to postal facilities in Port-
land to be sorted, causing
some ballots to arrive in
county clerks’ offices after
the deadline.
“This disenfranchises the
By ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — Voters in
Oregon mail in their bal-
lots or leave them in offi-
cial boxes, but a Republican
state lawmaker said Fri-
day more mailed votes may
arrive past deadline because
of U.S. Postal Service cut-
backs that have slowed mail
delivery in rural — and pri-
marily Republican — areas.
Sen. Brian Boquist wrote
to Elections Director Steve
Trout on Friday, saying he’d
like to know how many late
ballots arrive at county
voters,” Boquist said, add-
ing that ballots mailed from
Portland — a heavily Dem-
ocratic area — have less
risk of arriving late in the
mail.
Boquist suggested Ore-
gon might have to move to
a system where ballots post-
marked before the deadline
are valid, like tax returns.
Deb Royal, spokes-
woman for top election offi-
cial Secretary of State Den-
nis Richardson, said voters
have been strongly urged
to mail ballots early or use
drop boxes. It would be up
to the Legislature to change
the rules, she said.
Elections officials in the
two counties in Oregon that
still have postal service hubs
— Multnomah and Clacka-
mas, both in the Portland
area — are already taking
measures to reduce the risk
of ballots arriving late.
Those county elections
officials visit those postal
sorting facilities and pick
up all ballots that are avail-
able at the 8 p.m. Tuesday
deadline, mark those ballots
as received on time and dis-
tribute them to the appropri-
ate counties for processing
later in the week.
AP Photo/Don Ryan, File
In this May 17, 2016, file photo, ballots are prepared for
counting at Multnomah County election headquarters
in Portland.
Nonaffiliated voters key to victory in governor’s race
electorate. They are the sec-
ond largest voting bloc after
Democrats, who make up
36 percent. When combined
with independents, nonaf-
filiated voters outnumber
Democrats.
As of Friday, 83 percent of
nonaffiliated and 68 percent
of independents still hadn’t
returned their ballots, accord-
ing to the Oregon Elections
Division. Meanwhile, 60
percent of Democrats and 60
percent of Republicans have
yet to turn in ballots.
“There are far more inde-
pendents and nonaffiliated
voters (as a percentage) that
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
With polls showing the
two main gubernatorial can-
didates only a few percent-
age points away from victory,
their campaigns are focused
on winning votes from non-
affiliated and independent
voters in the final days before
Tuesday’s election.
The last-minute choices
of those voters could deter-
mine the outcome of the
race, political analysts said
Thursday.
Nonaffiliated voters make
up 32 percent of the state
have yet to vote than Demo-
crats and Republicans so how
they break in the last week of
the election is probably going
to determine the outcome of
the governor’s race,” said Sal
Peralta, secretary of the Inde-
pendent Party of Oregon.
Troutdale resident Steve
Smith, a registered Indepen-
dent, is one of those who
hasn’t voted yet.
“I wait until Voting Day,”
Smith said. “It’s kind of a
tradition.”
Democratic incumbent
Gov. Kate Brown’s cam-
paign has been targeting ads
toward nonaffiliated voters
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
Times of clouds
and sun
Occasional rain
Partly sunny with a
brief shower
Some sun with a
passing shower
Partly sunny and
chilly
59° 49°
60° 42°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
56° 41°
53° 36°
50° 30°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
62° 51°
65° 43°
61° 41°
59° 37°
OREGON FORECAST
55° 29°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Olympia
56/53
51/43
59/40
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
60/50
Lewiston
63/52
58/53
Astoria
58/54
Pullman
Yakima 57/46
56/50
55/47
Portland
Hermiston
60/52
The Dalles 62/51
Salem
Corvallis
60/48
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
52/42
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
61/49
58/44
53/44
Ontario
59/42
Caldwell
Burns
69°
54°
57°
35°
72° (1977) 0° (1935)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
59/49
0.01"
0.01"
0.06"
6.46"
7.83"
7.34"
WINDS (in mph)
58/43
55/28
0.07"
0.07"
0.08"
8.22"
13.72"
10.07"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 51/40
61/52
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
59/49
61/47
63°
47°
56°
36°
75° (1908) 7° (1935)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
57/51
Aberdeen
50/42
56/44
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
56/51
port a ballot measure to do
that in 2020.
Charles Starr, a nonaffil-
iated voter from Portland,
said he voted for Starnes
and returned his ballot the
day before the candidate
withdrew.
“If I had known that
before, I would have just
voted for Kate Brown,” Starr
said.
He said he usually votes
for
liberal
candidates.
Among his reasons is their
pro-life stance.
“Kate was already my
back-up option,” Starr said.
Smith, the independent
from Troutdale, said he is
leaning toward voting for
Republican challenger Knute
Buehler.
“I think it’s time for the
state to have a change,” Smith
said. “You leave one party
in power long enough, and
things start to go sideways.”
He said he would like a
Republican governor to have
veto power over the Demo-
cratic majority in the Oregon
House and Senate.
“I am anti-corruption, and
I also am all about checks
and balances,” he said.
Ricky Story, an inde-
pendent from Clackamas
County, said he has never
voted Republican but plans
to vote for Buehler.
“I think we need some
changes, and maybe that
will be the change,” Story
said. “We don’t have a lot of
options.”
Buehler’s campaign also
is reaching out to nonaffili-
ated and independent voters
“through grassroots efforts,
events, canvassing, ads
and informational pieces,”
said spokeswoman Monica
Wroblewski.
“Every vote is really
important in this race,” Wro-
blewski said “Independent
voters in particular feel like
the typical partisan labels
don’t define them and are
looking for new leadership.
We are using every tool we
can to communicate Knute’s
message to these voters.”
She declined to provide
specifics on how the cam-
paign was identifying and
reaching nonaffiliated voters.
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
on social media sites, such as
Facebook, said spokesman
Christian Gaston.
“What the social media
networks are doing is they
are offering that advertis-
ing profile and offering both
campaigns and commercial
advertisers access to differ-
ent consumers,” Gaston said.
Additionally, the cam-
paign also is reaching such
voters through door knock-
ing, phone calls and text mes-
sages, Brown said.
“The second largest group
of voters in Oregon now is
nonaffiliated, so what that
tells me is the Oregon elec-
torate, Oregonians, are hun-
gry for systems reform and
I think, campaign finance,
is part of those reforms that
need to happen,” the gover-
nor said Tuesday.
She made the comment
minutes after Patrick Starnes,
Independent Party of Ore-
gon candidate for governor,
withdrew from the race and
endorsed Brown. Starnes
campaigned principally on
limiting political contribu-
tions. Brown agreed to sup-
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
62/41
Sun.
WSW 7-14
WSW 7-14
WSW 8-16
WSW 8-16
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
61/31
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:38 a.m.
5:39 p.m.
2:44 a.m.
4:12 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
Nov 7
Nov 15
Nov 22
Nov 29
High court declines to extend
halt to climate change lawsuit
By JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP)
— The Supreme Court on
Friday declined for now
to stop a lawsuit filed by
young activists who say
the government isn’t doing
enough to prevent climate
change. But the high court
told the Trump administra-
tion that the government
can still petition a lower
court to dismiss the case as
the government had asked
the high court to do.
Trial in the case had
been scheduled to begin
earlier this week in
Eugene, but the Supreme
Court temporarily halted
the trial earlier this month.
On Friday evening,
the high court declined to
extend the temporary halt
to the case. The court said
in a three-page, unsigned
order that ordinarily the
request the government
made to the justices for the
case to be dismissed has to
be made to a lower court
first.
The high court said
“adequate relief may be
available” from the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the
9th Circuit. That court
has previously declined
requests to dismiss the
case at earlier stages.
The Supreme Court also
didn’t rule out bringing the
case back to the justices
after the appeals court
rules. Justice Clarence
Thomas and Justice Neil
Gorsuch said they would
have extended the halt to
the case.
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 94° in Thermal, Calif. Low 5° in Angel Fire, N.M.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
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Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
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40s
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50s
cold front
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