Lane County shares the September election update

Presenter: With an update for the commissioners, Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky:

Steve Mokrohisky (Lane County, administrator): We’re underway: 2,200 military and overseas ballots were mailed on Sept. 18. Military and overseas voters and domestic voters, by request, also received emails to use the county’s electronic ballot delivery system.

This year Lane County is not producing a county voter pamphlet. Voters should be expecting a state voter guide between Oct. 7 and Oct. 9, so within the next week to week and a half. Just under 283,000 voters are actively registered and set to receive ballots.

Voters have until the deadline of Oct. 13—that’s just two weeks from now—to register to vote (if you’re eligible and not registered to vote) or to update their voter registration.

You can go to lanecountyor.gov/elections to check and or update your registration. The Elections Office is currently open to provide ballots to voters who will be away during the election. So you can stop by the Elections Office on 10th and Lincoln and get a ballot if you’re planning to be away. Important upcoming dates and deadlines:

The week of Oct. 5, ballots will be sent to voters with a non-Oregon mailing address. That’s next week.

On Oct. 15, Thursday, Oct. 15 is an important date. Ballots will be dropped in the mail. All 25 Lane County drop boxes will be opened and the elections livestream will be turned on. So Thursday, Oct. 15, all those things will happen.

So ballots should be hitting mailboxes between Oct. 16 and Oct. 22.

Finally, the secretary of state authorized emergency funding for additional ballot drop boxes throughout the state. Lane County is working on adding three to four additional drop boxes by Oct. 15 when ballots go in the mail. We’re not sure we’re going to be able to do that by that deadline, so it’s not a promise.

It’s certainly great that the secretary of state has made those funds available. Those drop boxes will be put in place ultimately, and we’re trying to get them in place by the 15th, just not sure if we’ll be able to meet that deadline. and we’ll provide you updates and where those are located. We are looking at a geographic distribution, particularly in East and West Lane County in areas that do not have a drop box there.

The vote-by-mail flyer that’s included in each ballot packet informs voters to check the county elections website for ballot drop box locations. You can find the current 25 existing drop box locations. They’re secured. Again, they’ll be opened on Oct. 15. You can find those locations in the flyer that’s included when you get your ballot in the mail.

That’s the elections update.

Presenter: That’s Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky, who says the first ballots were mailed Sept. 18 to military and overseas voters.