Oregonians wrap up voting on high-stakes races and local issues

By Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – Oregonians only have a few hours to cast their ballots, and the stakes are high in the November election.

The presidential election will not depend on Oregon, which has reliably cast its votes for the Democratic candidate since 1984, when it joined every state except Minnesota in re-electing Republican Ronald Reagan. But voters in Oregon's 5th Congressional District can determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives, and voters across the state will make their voice heard on local and state laws and who should represent them in Salem.

They will decide whether the former Democratic speaker of the House or a Republican former prosecutor should be Oregon's next top lawyer and whether the job of overseeing Oregon's elections should be given to the Democratic state treasurer or a Republican who routinely spreads election misinformation. They will also decide which state senator should control the state treasury.

Voters from Bend to Oregon City will take part in one of the toughest congressional races in the country, deciding whether Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer gets another term in her first term or twice-elected Democrat Janelle Bynum will get another term after defeating Chavez-DeRemer in the general election, she will make good on her repeated promise to beat Chavez-DeRemer a third time.

And voters in the Willamette Valley and along the coast will determine the outcome of their own congressional elections. Democratic U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas faces a rematch with Republican Mike Erickson in the 6th Congressional District, and Republican Monique DeSpain is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Val Hoyle in the 4th Congressional District.

Across the state, voters will decide whether to give lawmakers the power to impeach statewide elected officials, whether to give an independent commission the power to set elected officials' salaries, whether to give voters the ability to approve candidates on a ballot assess whether to tax corporations more to share revenue among all Oregonians and make it easier for cannabis workers to unionize with their votes on five statewide ballot measures. In local communities across the state, they will vote on banning psilocybin companies, voice their opinions on offshore wind energy and decide whether to pay more property taxes to fund schools and roads.

All 60 state House districts and 15 of the 30 state Senate districts are also up for election. Democrats now have 35 seats in the House and 17 seats in the Senate, and just one more seat in either chamber could give them the 60% supermajority needed to impose new taxes or raise existing ones. Republicans are trying to shrink those majorities, as they did in 2022.

Voters who have not yet cast their ballots have until Tuesday at 8 p.m. to post their ballots in a designated mailbox. Ballots postmarked by Tuesday will also be counted – voters who want to mail their ballots should contact a post office to ensure they receive a postmark. That's especially important east of the Cascades, where mail collected from mailboxes is trucked to Portland before being postmarked.

The first election results will be published on the Secretary of State's website shortly after 8 p.m. Results will continue to be released overnight and on subsequent days and will not be official until the election is certified in December. Media organizations will project the outcome of the races based on available data on election night and in the coming days, and the Capital Chronicle will rely on race calls from the Associated Press.