From casting ballots to touring the Election Building in Southeast Portland, many took part in the civic process for the January 23 Special Election. The following are some of those stories:
Former Secretary of State Phil Kiesling and members of Montana-based Western Native Voice
Former Secretary of State Phil Kiesling and members of Billings-based Western Native Voice visited the Voting Center Express in Gresham election morning.
Western Native Voice, a community-organizing non-profit, works to strengthen Native American communities on reservations and in cities across Montana. Members of the organization visited Oregon to observe and learn about the elections process.
Kiesling provided a tour for the organization’s executive director and state field director.
“We work on everything from advocacy to policy work and leadership work,” said Alyssa Snow, State Field Director. “Elections are a part of it.”
Distance and poverty are factors in voter turnout, Snow and Marci McLean explained.
“It’s so important to have voting centers,” said Snow. “Every county should have an outreach person providing voter education.”
“They want to make sure, particularly in tribal lands, that people have access to facilities,” Kiesling said. “There isn’t a system where everybody has their ballot at the outset like Oregon.”
Myra Fleming/Yoga instructor
Myra Fleming lives in downtown Portland but teaches yoga to seniors and others every week at the Multnomah County East Building.
She planned to drop her ballot at the Gresham voting center but forgot it at home. Instead, she was able to get a replacement ballot at the new pop-up center, and cast it immediately. It saved her the trip home.
“It would it have been a lot of work for me and, the questions is, ‘Would I have done that?’” said Fleming. “It could have been a lost vote.”
“Life is tough and we’re all extremely busy. And the slightest thing that goes off schedule can derail you, so we all have to make choices,” she said.
“I can’t say enough about having the visual presence” of a voting center, she said. “It triggers something in the brain.”
The Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington
The Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington toured the Multnomah County Duniway-Lovejoy Elections Building in Southeast Portland on Election Tuesday.
The young troops, ranging in age from 5 to 11, followed the path of the ballot from drop off to sorting, opening, scanning and counting.
They asked and answered questions about the voting process.
“This is the first time we’ve done something like this,” said Sarah Shipe, Director of Communications for Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington
It’s part of the Girl Scouts G.I.R.L Agenda, a nonpartisan initiative to inspire, prepare and mobilize girls to ‘lead positive change through civic action.’
G.I.R.L is an acronym for Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker and Leader explains Shipe.
“We want to motivate young girls who are future voters to see the process and understand that it’s an open process,” said Shipe.
“We want them to educate themselves now and prepare them later as adults to do their civic duty.”
Tracy Marshall and her 94-year-old mother, Marceline Clark
Husband and wife Jim and Tracy Marshall stopped by the Voting Center Express on Election Day to update voter information and cast their ballots.
The couple of 39 years heard about the new location on the radio. It’s much closer to their Gresham home than the main Elections office.
“We loved the convenience of voting by mail,” said Tracy Marshall, “and sometimes it’s nice to come in and vote at a poll.”
Marshall later returned with her 94-year-old mother to cast her ballot. “We never not vote,” said the pair.
“I have been voting since I was 18-years-old,” said Marcy Clark who served in the Korean War and World War II.
“I don’t go into downtown Portland. So this location is convenient for us.”
Couple Laurielle Aviles and Leah Middleton
Laurielle Aviles cast her ballot at the Voting Center Express on Tuesday. Her partner, Leah Middleton, joined her for “moral support.”
They made the trip because Middleton, who’d just moved into Aviles’ Northeast Portland house last August, didn’t received her ballot. She hadn’t updated her voter information, and it went to her old address instead.
“I needed to get a new ballot,” she said, “so we decided to come to this location.”
Aviles moved to Multnomah County when she was 18 and had relied on Oregon’s vote-by-mail system ever since.
“I’ve never used a polling place, so it was nice to use a polling place,” Aviles said.