Voter numbers set to swell with ‘motor voter’ law

Approved by the Legislature last year, the law ties together the records of the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles and the Oregon Secretary of State’s Elections Division. Oregonians who contact the DMV to obtain or renew a driver’s license or identification card are contacted by mail by the Secretary of State’s Office. The individual can reply by mail to register with a party or decline to register as a voter — in all other cases, they are automatically registered as a nonaffiliated voter.

Molly Woon, spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Office, said it’s expected it will take eight years for the DMV to make contact with nearly every eligible voter in the state as their driver’s licenses and ID cards come up for renewal. Later this year, the state will send a letter to Oregonians who were in contact with the DMV in 2014 and 2015 to register them to vote. Woon said prior to 2014, the DMV did not make note of license and ID recipients’ citizenship status, and it would be difficult to determine whether anyone who did business with the DMV during that time is eligible to register to vote.

Deschutes County Clerk Nancy Blankenship said she’s been told to expect the number of Deschutes County voters to balloon by as many as 24,000 by the Nov. 8 election. As of Jan. 31, 102,631 Deschutes County residents were registered to vote.

Blankenship said local voter registration numbers began heading upward in January, when Deschutes County added about 1,000 voters, and will probably add even more this month.

Blankenship said that although the new registration system probably accounts for many of the new registrants, the upcoming March vote on a city of Bend gas tax and hotly contested presidential primaries in both the Democratic and Republican parties coming up in May probably are factors as well.

Oregonians contacted by the Secretary of State’s Office have not been particularly interested in signing on with a political party.

As of Feb. 17, just 18 percent of Oregonians contacted have returned the postcard to either choose a party or decline to be registered to vote. The remaining 82 percent — 8,321 — were automatically registered as nonaffiliated voters, and will be sent a ballot for all elections in which they are eligible to vote. They would not be able to vote in major-party primaries.

Of the 1,559 unregistered Oregonians who returned postcards sent to them by the Secretary of State’s Office, 711 have asked not to be added to the voter rolls. Another 848 have picked a party affiliation — 412 Democrats, 277 Republicans, 78 choosing to register as nonaffiliated, 48 registering with the Independent Party of Oregon and 33 with smaller parties.

Oregon has in recent years had some of the highest voter turnout in the nation, an achievement generally credited to the state’s vote-by-mail system. Blankenship said she’s curious to see whether newly registered voters return their ballots at the same rate of voters who registered under the old system.

The clerk said the cost of mailing ballots to voters registered through the DMV will be covered by the county, and it’s possible her office may need to bring in temporary workers to assist with processing new registrations later this year. Blankenship said she does not expect the new law will be a serious burden on her office’s budget.

Elsewhere in Central Oregon, about 200 voters were added in Crook County and 46 in Jefferson County from the first of the year to Friday.

The new registration system could have negative consequences for the Independent Party of Oregon, which was granted major-party status last year when the number of Oregon voters registered with the party passed 5 percent. As a major party, the Independent Party of Oregon can hold primary elections alongside the Democrats and Republicans, with state and local governments picking up the cost of running the election; smaller parties like the Libertarians and the Pacific Green Party do not have access to the primary ballot.

Since its formation in 2007, the Independent Party of Oregon has seldom fielded its own candidates, but has endorsed Democrats and Republicans selected by its membership in an online primary.

If voters registered through the DMV continue to choose not to align with a party and are registered as nonaffiliated voters, the influx of new unaffiliated voters will dilute the strength of the Independent Party of Oregon, pushing its numbers back below the 5 percent major party threshold.

Woon, of the Secretary of State’s Office, said the state intends to recognize the Independent Party of Oregon’s major-party status through the November election, though its future as a major party beyond this year remains uncertain.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387,

shammers@bendbulletin.com