The United States Postal Service began delivering ballots today, Wednesday, April 27, for the upcoming Primary Election. Multnomah County voters who do not receive a ballot by Thursday, May 5, should call the Multnomah County Elections office at 503-988-VOTE. Voted ballots must be received at any county elections office in Oregon or Official Ballot Drop Site location by 8 p.m., Tuesday, May 17, 2022, or postmarked by May 17, 2022 to be counted.
Voters in Multnomah County can sign up for the Track Your Ballot service at multnomah.ballottrax.net to know when their ballot is on its way. Multnomah County Elections’ Track Your Ballot service is available in multiple languages. Voters can choose to receive ballot tracking alerts and updates in English, Spanish, Russian, Somali, Vietnamese or Chinese. Alerts also indicate whether the ballot has been accepted for counting or whether it requires further action by the voter. Voters can get a virtual “I Voted” sticker after they return their ballot.
New ballot packets are arriving in the mail this year. The traditional 4.5-by-10.5-inch ballot packet envelope has changed to a larger, 6-by-9-inch ballot packet, similar to those used in Washington State’s Vote-By-Mail elections. The ballot packet is larger overall, with larger print, images and information about Elections services. The new style is more accessible while also providing the same secure ballot you always get.
You will notice the ballot packet no longer contains an optional secrecy sleeve. That’s because it doesn’t need one. Instead, a privacy weave has been embedded directly into the Official Ballot Return Envelope. When the ballot is placed into the envelope, the privacy weave prevents anyone from seeing how the ballot was voted. Even when the ballot is returned to the Elections Division for processing, the privacy of the ballot will remain intact, with procedures designed to ensure your information on the ballot envelope is never matched up to how you voted. Watch this three-minute video to learn how this process works. And read more here.
You can return your ballot to an Official Ballot Drop Site. Return your ballot to any 24-hour Official Ballot Drop Site in the state or to any 24-hour Multnomah County Library Drop Site. All 30 Multnomah County Official Ballot Drop Sites are listed below and at multco.us/dropsites. Voted ballots must be received at any county elections office in Oregon or Official Ballot Drop Site location by 8 p.m., Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
You can also choose to return your ballot by mail, no stamp necessary. Thanks to the passage of House Bill 3291, also known as the “postmarks'' bill, ballots that are in the mail and postmarked by the United States Postal Service on Election Day will be counted.
Multnomah County has 30 Official Ballot Drop Sites available now until 8 p.m. on Election Day for you to return your ballot. Official Ballot Drop Sites include all Multnomah County Library locations. Ballots are picked up from library locations and Official Ballot Drop Boxes on a regular schedule. The list of Official Ballot Drop Sites is available online.
Source: Multnomah County Elections