The reason is simple enough, though this is the first time I can remember it happening.
After driving past signs pointing out the ballot drop boxes next to the Multnomah County Elections Office on Saturday morning and turning onto the street in question to find it posted with temporary no parking signs, I decided I had better check my voter registration. I hadn't thought much about it, since Willamette Week makes a big production of recommendations for local elections and I hadn't seen any, and the only ad I'd heard on the radio was for somebody in Vancouver, which is across the Columbia in another state.
I checked my voter registration on the Secretary of State's webpage when I got home. Yes, I'm currently registered. I should (and would) have received a ballot a couple of weeks back if there was anything at all affecting all of Multnomah County.
So I should call the Elections Office. But it was the weekend, and if I needed to talk to a real person, nobody would be there.
I called a couple of hours ago, to find myself listening to a message about the outlying school districts and outlying fire district whose residents were the only ones who should have received ballots. And if I should have and hadn't, yada, yada, yada.
I live about as close to central downtown Portland as is possible for anybody who lives in Southeast. None of the districts where people had issues on the ballot is anywhere close to me.
Oh, okay. That's why. Never happened before that I can recall - may never happen again.
Anybody else (other than the rest of the locals) find themselves in this situation?