With Week Until Oregon Election, Officials Advise Using Ballot Drop Box Rather Than Mail

Starting Wednesday, May 13, Oregon voters would be wise to return their ballot for the May 19 election via an official ballot drop box, rather than mailing it, Secretary of State Tobias Read said.

His Tuesday announcement cites the risk of a mailed ballot not getting the required postmark by election day—a concern it attributes to “recent service cuts to USPS.” But there is a bigger picture here as well.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a challenge to a Mississippi law that allows ballots to be counted if they arrive after election day. This, since the 2022 election, has also been the policy in Oregon.

Where for a long time, Oregon mailed ballots needed to arrive by election day to be counted, in 2021 state lawmakers passed a measure stating that a ballot was valid as long as it was postmarked by election day and arrived at an elections office within seven days of the election.

In the Supreme Court case, Oregon joined Mississippi and several states in defending local election rules of this sort. Read, in an amicus brief, wrote that “The Republican National Committee is trying to stop ballots from being counted after Election Day because they think it will help them win.”

Nonetheless ScotusBlog and other Supreme Court observers reported that, in the March oral arguments, the court’s majority seemed poised to side with those who challenged the Mississippi law by arguing it conflicted with federal law.

The court has not yet ruled, and it’s not clear how any ruling would effect Oregon law or the May election. For now, Read’s message encourages as many people as possible to get their ballots in early—and to avoid using the mail at all at this point if possible.

The secretary of state’s office said the advice was “especially important for voters returning ballots in Eastern, Central and Southern Oregon because mail must travel all the way to Portland for processing and postmarking before being delivered to their local county election office.”

Meanwhile, for voters who need to mail their ballot, Read encouraged them to go into the Post Office and request a manual postmark.

The Secretary of State’s Office has an online tool to help Oregonians locate the ballot drop box closest to them. Ballots must be returned to a drop box before 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.

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