Castillo vs. Maurer: Ballot Wonkery

Kari Chisholm FacebookTwitterWebsite

I just got off the phone with Don Hamilton at the Secretary of State. Got answers to a lot of odd little process questions related to the Castillo/Maurer race. Let's dive in and get wonkified:

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    Thanks for the update Kari, this, for me, was the real surprise outcome of Tuesday night.

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    Presently the SoS has Sup. Castillo at 50.10% and Rep. Maurer at 40.60%. A nailbiter...

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    Kari, Did Hamilton give you an idea about how these ballots broke out by County? If he did, for cross County line drops, do those counts indicate original County, or County where dropped?

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      He did not. But I think you can expect that they are largely in areas where you have workers who cross county lines on a daily basis -- like in the metro area, from West Salem (Polk) to downtown Salem (Marion), from Linn & Benton counties...

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    Maurer has no shot. Worst case scenario is a run-off in Nov. In a full election the right wing nut job is going to lose.

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      Should this go to a November run-off, Maurer has an excellent shot at unseating the incumbant establishment candidate. For the May election he campaigned mostly around Salem and in southern Oregon. A statewide campaign will easily unseat a democrat, status quo incumbant.

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    Maybe it is only because I never thought about or found it convenient to drop my ballot in a dropbox located in a county other than the one I live in, but it never occurred to me that doing so would slow down the count. I wonder how many people who do that know it has this effect? I tended to look upon it as being more or less the equivalent of mailing the ballot (except I save a stamp).

    How do voters know if their envelopes are unsigned or have a signature that is a questionable match? Does someone notify them?

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    FYI, I've made a correction in the above post. Don Hamilton contacted me to let me know that he'd mis-stated the 10-day window.

    A ballot that is missing its signature has to be fixed by 8pm on election day - or it's not a valid ballot. If the ballot is turned in early, the voter is contacted and invited to come in and sign the ballot.

    A ballot that has a signature that doesn't match what's on file has to be fixed within 10 days after election day.

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    Kari, is the voter notified of the potential issue with their signature? How are they notified?

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