First things first: it is pronounced "Ore-gun" and not "Ore-gone." Best way to lose an election in the Beaver State (yes, it is really called the Beaver State) is to say it wrong.
Oregon is an all vote-by-mail state. There are no precinct polling places.
And it's an outstanding exercise in voter participation: In 2004, Multnomah County (Portland) had an 85% voter turnout. I'm told that the idea was initially posed by a Secretary of State who wanted to run for higher office in the 90's, and he posed the all-mail in election as way to save money. It also creates an 18-day election period.
The rules in Oregon state that ballots must be received by election night. A postmark of that day is not good enough. So election day in Oregon looks a lot different than in other places.
For instance, if you've ever been to the post office on tax day to mail your returns, you know that government workers stand outside with bins in order to accommodate the traffic created by everyone trying to get their taxes in on time. Election day in Oregon looks a lot like tax day in most other states. Election workers standing outside at authorized drop-off locations with bins for voters to hand-off ballots.
On the pronounciation theme -- if you come to Idaho, remember to say "Boy-see" not "Boy-zee". It is subtle, but we will hear the difference.
Posted by: Yondalla | May 14, 2008 at 08:08 AM
On a similar note, it's Ne-VA-duh. VA as in the word "Van." There is no "vah" sound in the middle!
Posted by: Mr Super | May 14, 2008 at 08:22 AM
Does anyone know how/when the ballots will be counted in Oregon? Are they counted & tallied on a daily basis, as they are mailed in? Or are they all counted after 8pm on election night? Will we know who won on election night?
Posted by: Dan_in_upstate_NY | May 14, 2008 at 08:48 AM
Ironically, the biggest offender of the Ore-gun/Ore-gone flub is your former boss Bill Richardson! I love Bill, but that one rankles the ears.
Posted by: PR | May 14, 2008 at 09:29 AM
And here in the Midwest, it's Illinois with a silent "s" at the end and Missouri is pronounced Miss-er-ee, not Miss-er-uh.
Posted by: Alicia | May 14, 2008 at 09:46 AM
PR - heh, his flub is actually what prompted me to write the clarification! :)
Posted by: Mr Super | May 14, 2008 at 09:52 AM
By the way, it's Mur-i-lind, not Mary-land. Almost sounds like Merlin, the wizard.
Posted by: TMo | May 14, 2008 at 11:08 AM
Oregon results are released election night. I'm not sure if they are counting them as they come in or don't start until election night but results trickle in just like everywhere else. My one regret is that we won't have exit polls since there are no polls to stand outside and question people. I'd love to have some non-appalachia exit polls to shove up the butt of every yammering talking head and Clinton surrogate that says rural/working class/hard working white folks won't vote for Barack Obama.
Posted by: Chris | May 14, 2008 at 12:44 PM
do the ballots get mailed back into local/regional centers for counting or do they all go to one central location? if so, i'm assuming they are then codified somehow so as to be able to segregate votes by district, correct? curious, but would love to see more of this happen around the country.
Posted by: marc | May 14, 2008 at 01:42 PM
It's done by county since you have county and city elections on the ballot too, and the ballot goes back to the county elections office.
Posted by: Chris | May 14, 2008 at 02:52 PM