Portland, OR

Or October 4 if you are a Washington resident.

Women have only been voting in national elections since 1920…chew on that.

Many thanks go out to an especially astute reader, Geeba, who suggested that I remind people to get registered to vote by the appropriate deadlines. Oregon is Tuesday, October 14, 2008 in person or by mail. To vote in Oregon, you must by a United States citizen, as well as a resident of Oregon, and 18 years old by November 4th. I registered to vote back in March or maybe February before the primary, and it was really easy, so you have no excuse not to vote. Especially because in Oregon, you don’t have to go to a polling place, you simply mail in your ballot. Strange, I know, but true. Oregon only votes by mail, so really even the laziest of us have absolutely no excuse to not vote. You don’t even need a stamp…

All I did was print out a voter registration form, provide the last four digits of my soc, and signed it. I did have to use a stamp for that, but I wonder if the elections office would “return to sender” if you didn’t put postage on it. I wonder.

If you fill out the online registration form, you can also give your drivers license number or state ID number, but I still have my Illinois ID, so I had to go with a valid social security number. If you are ID-less (like me) and you don’t have a social security number, there are other ways. This is from Vote411.org, a great website to check out for the easiest way to find out anything you need to vote.

* Valid photo identification
* A paycheck stub
* A utility bill
* A bank statement
* A government document
* Proof of eligibility under the uniformed and overseas citizens absentee voting act (UOCAVA) or the voting accessibility for the elderly and handicapped act (VAEH)

Now, here is a funny story. The year was 2004, and I just happened to be visiting my parents in Lowell, Michigan. I go to the fire station to vote with my mom, and for some reason, I am not in the register as a registered voter. Like I wrote before, I am an enthusiastic little politico, and I always vote. I had also always kept my parents address while I apartment hopped during school. Long story short, I had accidentally changed the address when I renewed my license plates on my car, and was no longer register in that county. Oopsy. I had a registration card, but not a valid ID to show my actual address. I was not allowed to vote. Luckily, Kerry won Michigan in ‘04, so my vote was not necessarily needed in that race.

Anyway, long story short, if something comes up when you go into vote and they cannot confirm that you are supposed to be voting (I didn’t get to vote because of my little mishap), then you can file a provisional ballot. I doubt this comes up in Oregon, but maybe in Washington.

Yep, I just checked. In Washington, if your name is not in the register or you don’t have ID, you can cast a provisional ballot.

Use a provisional ballot if you go to a polling place and find one of the following.
Your name is not in the poll book.
Your name is there but records show you were sent an absentee ballot.
You have a question about the people or issues on which you can vote.
You did not bring identification.
Then:
Vote.
Put your ballot into the security envelope.
Put the security envelope into a provisional ballot envelope. Your ballot will be counted if you
are eligible to vote. To find out if
your provisional ballot will be counted, contact your county elections department:
www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/auditors.aspx

Here’s a link to Washington State’s official elections and voting information.

And Oregon’s elections website.

But seriously, Vote411.org is a great site to check out or point your friends to.

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