Maybe, maybe not. There were what I'd call suspicious circumstances regarding my attempt to update my voter registration.
Knowing the importance of this years elections and wanting to be certain my registration was updated in time I sent in my change of address information around the beginning of September. After not receiving my ballot by this week I decided it was time to find out why.
I discovered that the problem with my registration was that I hadn't included in my new physical address whether I was on South 1st Street or North 1st Street. I hadn't even realized that our little 7 block long street HAD North and South portions. And given that our address "hundred block" doesn't exist on North 1st, and given that my mailing address is a PO Box anyway I felt this was a bit nit picky of them. I was assured that this was crucial information for the computer system and that now that the information was complete my ballot would be sent.
That was two days ago, still waiting for the ballot. Meanwhile, I have serious concerns about the process here. Why was I not contacted to resolve this issue prior to ballots being sent? There was plenty of time, and my mailing address was accurate. I called the Secretary of State's office to inquire about this and they confirmed that standard procedure for a case like mine is to send a letter asking for clarification. I passed along the details of my situation, and mentioned that I was suspicious given that I was registering as a Democrat in a heavily Republican county.
Had I not been pro-active on this issue I may not have been able to vote this year. And I have to wonder whether the local election office might have chosen to let my registration slip through the cracks while making sure that Republican registrations all went through. And how many others are there like mine? I have no evidence, just my own experience and the knowledge that the GOP has a recent history of robust voter suppression efforts.
This is also another reason that I firmly support Oregon's vote-by-mail system. I knew ballots were out and was able to do something about this ahead of time, instead of discovering on election day that there was a problem and being required to cast a provisional ballot.