My Oregon ballot is sitting on my dining room table, about to be marked for Barack. You thought that the Oregon primary was May 20? No, that's not when we vote. That's when we count the ballots. Election Day in Oregon is today.
My ballot arrived yesterday in the mail. Bill Clinton just called my house, asking me to mark that ballot for Hillary. It didn't move me, but it might move other Democrats. I hope that Michelle is doing her robo-calling as well. She hasn't called me.
Oregon started voting yesterday and continues today. And tomorrow. People can delay their votes all the way until May 20. But will they?
We vote only by mail in Oregon. There are no longer any polling booths anywhere in the State. This isn't "early voting" and it isn't "absentee voting." This is just how we vote in Oregon -- with ballots delivered by the Post Office two weeks before Counting Day. We can mail them back any time that we wish. (Remember to put a stamp on.)
If you wish, you can drop off your ballot without a stamp in one of the white "election boxes" (converted mailboxes) around town. Or for old times' sake you can even sit at a table at County Election Headquarters on May 20 and mark your ballot. But almost the only people who do that are those who didn't receive one in the mail -- and yet believe that they are registered (they can cast provisional ballots at the HQ) -- or those who need help in casting a vote because of physical limitation. The rest of us do "dining table/mailbox voting." That's the Oregon system.
How does this work? In 2004, I headed up a "Democratic Vote Protection Team" of lawyers in my county, organizing teams of lawyers to help protect the vote for John Kerry and John Edwards. Some lawyers were present for an entire week at County Election Headquarters to help stragglers get their votes counted. Others were there (along with non-lawyer volunteers) as the mail was opened, sitting alongside the signature-checkers as they compared signatures on the return envelope with those on voter registration cards, and then placed the "ballot secrecy envelope" in a tray for later tallying. On Counting Day, some sat in the counting room and kept an eye on things. Other lawyers were deployed to Kerry-Edwards Headquarters all week to answer legal questions that might arise for a particular voter's attempt to vote, to help apply for a new ballot, etc.
Occasionally the work was inspiring. A lawyer volunteer patiently listened to a speech-impaired voter in a wheelchair who said the officials turned him away. She got down the details and then got back in line with him to pick up a provisional ballot. They chatted, slowly and with difficulty, as the line moved forward. When he came to the front of the line, an official tried to shoo her away. "Only the voter should be here." Others in the line quickly saw what was happening.
"Let him vote! Let her help!" went up the cry. "It's not fair." "She is his advocate!"
The elections official relented, letting her help him get his ballot issued, sign his name, and wheel himself off to a quiet place where he could participate in the democratic process. There is no guarantee that he voted for Kerry-Edwards, of course. But the gentleman certainly knew who had helped him. And for all of us watching at the time or hearing her relate the story afterwards, a lump formed in our own throats and a tear in our eyes. We knew that, however small, our team had helped expand democracy that day.
But that's the final day, and that's just part of the picture. The bigger picture started yesterday and continues today and tomorrow.
Today is Election Day in Oregon. Bill Clinton just called me. I hope that Michelle calls soon. I'd like to be marking my ballot while she is talking to me on the phone.