Front: Adrianos Polous from Archive, Back: From left, Christie Call from Information Services and Heather Wilson from Corporation. And Secretary Brown standing in the barrel.

Employees of the all seven divisions of the Secretary of State’s office collected 829 pounds of food and donated $5,959, which will generate another 29,796 pounds for a total of 30,625 pounds of food for Oregon’s families in need.

The state employee drive started Feb. 1 and ran for four weeks until Feb. 26. State employees across state agencies collected food, raised cash, earmarked contributions from paychecks, and bought special fleece blankets to support the Governor’s efforts.

From our offices here in the Capitol, the food was taken to be sorted and sent to 20 different food banks that serve all 36 Oregon counties, as well as Clark County in Southwest Washington.

The food drive is a great example of Oregonians banding together, even in tough economic times, to support our State’s most vulnerable families and individuals.

In just one week of service, over 1049 Oregonians have registered to vote using the new system.

Remember, Online Voter Registration is NOT replacing paper registration, it is simply offering up an alternative to the paper system for those who would use it. As Secretary of State Brown stated in a recent Oregonian Op-Ed:

It will help people who find traditional procedures out of reach, including the housebound and the disabled community. With the right equipment, for example, sightless people can register without the assistance of another person to fill out a card. Our military servicemen and women will find far less delay in registration, eliminating worries about whether the snail mail will deliver their paperwork in time.

We are extremely happy to have the system up and running and hope that Oregonians continue to get registered to vote in the upcoming May Primary Election.

We’ll leave you today with a table with of some more detailed information on registrations done with the Online system:

We wanted to invite everyone to take part in a webinar demo of the most user-friendly, convenient and secure way of registering to vote in the State of Oregon. This informational demo will take participants through the online registration process, from beginning to end, followed by a short question and answer session with Elections Director Steve Trout.

Our online participants will join members of the Legislature, advocacy groups and state wide media, who will be viewing the presentation from inside the Capitol Building in Salem.

The webinar will take place on February 25, 2010 at 9:00am. Registration information for the webinar can be found at this link:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/790747411

We hope to see you there!

Courtesy of Statesman Journal

The Statesman Journal has done a write up on Secretary of State Kate Brown’s participation in a recent Census event on the steps of the Capitol. The Secretary spoke about the importance of a complete count for the State of Oregon, both in terms of federal dollars and the possibility of adding an all-important sixth congressional district.

From the article:

Secretary of State Kate Brown urged residents to participate at Wednesday’s event on the steps of the state Capitol.

“It means money for Oregon,” Brown said. “We want to make sure we get our fair share. … Our state government and our local governments need every dollar.”

Brown spoke with a group of Canby High School students who visited the Capitol and sat in on the Legislative session as part of their Future Business Leaders of America group.

So why exactly is a complete and accurate Census count so important to the state of Oregon?

To put the count’s impact in real terms, there will be close to $400 billion dollars in federal funding to be distributed over the next few years. The results of the 2010 Census count will be major factor in helping decision makers in Washington, D.C. decide where those funds will go. In these tough economic times for the state, this is a big deal. As Michael Burns, the deputy regional director of the U.S. Census Bureau mentions in the article, each person counted means roughly $1,400 for state and local governments.

To give you an idea of where this money can be used, here are just a few examples of where federal money was allocated in 2007:

• Food stamps – $30.4 billion
• Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers – $16.1 billion
• National School Lunch Program – $8.6 billion
• Head Start – $6.2 billion
• State Children’s Insurance Program – $5.5 billion
• Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program – $5.3 billion
• Foster care (Title IVE) – $4.5 billion
• Child Care Mandatory & Matching Funds – $2.9 billion
• School Breakfast Program – $2.1 billion

These are programs that have a massive impact on people’s lives.

The Census count will also determine whether or not Oregon’s population has grown so much since the last count that we require a sixth congressional district. This would mean that Oregon would have another Representative to join our already stellar representation in the US Congress. Greater representation in Washington means a louder voice for Oregonians; and this is a good thing.

Census forms will arrive by mid-March of this year. We are hoping to make 2010 the most complete count in Oregon’s history. It’s in our hands!

Below is a video of the press conference, which followed the discussions. For Secretary of State Brown’s statements, you’ll have to fast forward to the 6:24 mark.

Here are links to parts: 1, 2 and 4 as well.

The Secretary was honored to be able to come together with the Pacific Coast’s most prominent leaders to discuss the how the entire Pacific Coast can come together to solve the most pressing environmental issues of the future.

Early Scanning

As Jeff Mapes alluded to in this piece, early scanning had a major impact on the tallying of votes in this election. According to our number crunching Deputy Secretary of State, it is estimated that by 9:00pm, just one hour after the voting deadline, around 83% of ballots had been tallied. This is thanks to a bill that was passed during the 2009 session, which allows for counties to scan ballots received before the deadline and keep that data stored safely and securely until election day. It should be noted that the ballots are ONLY scanned and not tabulated until election day.

We received some kind words from County clerks, thanking us for making early scanning a reality.

Voter Turnout

You may remember the Secretary’s turnout prediction of 62% for this special election. Well according to our OCVR data as of yesterday, 1,280,278 of a total 2,049,703, or almost exactly 62% of registered voters, turned in their ballots this election!

Our elections division has 30 days from election day to certify this special election. We will be sure to share the final data with you as it is made available.

Today, January 26th, is the final day to turn in your ballot for the Special Election! Your ballot must be received by 8pm to be counted. To find a ballot drop off site, please take a look at our Ballot Drop Box Locator.

The election is in full swing on the final day for Oregonians to turn in ballots. For a look at daily returns, you can check out our elections handy (but unofficial) ballot returns table. Multnomah, Clackamas, Lane, Marion, Coos, and Benton Counties are also keeping more detailed and in some cases up-to-date tallies as they become available.

For her part, Secretary of State Kate Brown is taking the day to observe the democratic process with Multnomah County Elections officials as they pickup, drop off, process, and tally ballots.

The film follows a mother and father as they do whatever it takes to find a researcher who might have a cure for their two children’s rare genetic disorder. The disorder is called Pompe Disease, which is caused by mutations in a gene that makes an enzyme called alpha-glucosidase (GAA).  Normally, the body uses GAA to break down glycogen, a stored form of sugar used for energy.  But in Pompe disease, mutations in the GAA gene reduce or completely eliminate this essential enzyme.  Excessive amounts of glycogen accumulate everywhere in the body, but the cells of the heart and skeletal muscles are the most seriously affected¹. What makes this project’s connection to OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital so incredible, is that it just so happens that OHSU Doernbecher is the largest Pompe disease research and treatment center on the West Coast.

During the event, which was held on Nike’s headquarters, Secretary of State Brown also announced that Nike was donating it’s $60,000 location fee from the filming of the movie to the OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.  This money promises to go a long way towards serving the Hospital’s mission to improve the health of children in our region by providing quality and compassionate, family-centered care to every child, every day. It could also be key in helping researchers find the cure to rare diseases like Pompe disease.

This projection is based on a number of trends and some similarities in the numbers between what we’re seeing now and the 2004 special election, which also featured a ballot measure on taxes. Some more in depth facts that informed our projection:

• 2004 February Special turnout on a tax increase was 63%.  At this point in the election in 2004, about 5% more ballots had been returned than have been in this election;
• However, the MLK holiday took a day of mail delivery out, which did not occur in 2004;
• Ballots are coming in later, but in higher numbers than in 2004.  As an example, the first day of returns in 2004 saw 78,530 ballots in, compared to 2,772 in 2010.  Most counties are catching up with higher daily returns as the voting window remains open.
• As voters continue to embrace vote-by-mail, we’ve seen them hold onto their ballots longer, usually resulting in a large spike the weekend before election day, and on election day itself.  We expect we’ll see that again this year.

This is a very important election to the state of Oregon and Oregonians are acting accordingly. We’ve had about 36% of ballots returned so far, with more than 100,000 more coming in each day, which is truly great considering the proximity to the holidays, including the Federal holiday we had last weekend.

Secretary of State Brown encourages all eligible voters to cast their vote and prove her wrong by shattering the 62% prediction!

What percentage of Oregon’s voters do YOU think will vote in next Tuesday’s election?

For more information about what happens after you’ve turned in your ballot, check out our entry from November From The Ballot Box to The Scanner.

1. Mail your ballot in before Friday, January 22nd – After this date, the Postal Service cannot guarantee that it will deliver your ballot on time.

2. Drop your ballot off at an official ballot drop-off site before 8pm on January 26th - If you’re unable to send your ballot in before January 22nd, you can still drop your ballot off at one of many ballot drop-off sites.

To help with the process of finding the closest drop-off site, our Elections Division has created a Ballot Drop Locator, which plots the locations of drop-off sites on an online mapping application. If you’re still having trouble finding a drop-off site, take a look at our County Elections Office guide and give your county’s elections officials a call.