Many Oregon voters say they need more time and details before they mail back their ballots
Updated: Jan. 10, 2019, 6:58 p.m. | Published: Oct. 24, 2010, 5:00 p.m.
By Michelle Cole, The Oregonian
For many Oregon voters this fall's ballot is like a really hard take-home test. There's a lot to read and think about and voters say they need time to get it right.
So far, just 9 percent of the ballots sent to voters have been returned, slightly lagging behind the 10 percent returned at the same point in fall 2006, the last time Oregon elected a governor. The returns tallied by the Secretary of State reflect activity only through Thursday and political scientists agree it's too soon to predict turnout.
A lot of people are like Amanda Oleson, who says she opened her ballot and got out her voter's guide and then put them aside.
"I'm definitely going to vote," said Oleson, 30. "It's a question of finding the time to read everything."
Oleson lives in Eugene. She has two children, ages 1 and 2 1/2, and attends Lane Community College, where she is studying to become a diagnostic imaging technician.
With ballots out and the voting started, The Oregonian visited with voters -- Republicans, Democrats and others -- in several cities and towns throughout the state. Like many, Oleson says she knows the stakes are high this election year and she's paying particular attention to the governor's race.
No matter which party label they like, Oregon voters listed the same top concerns: Jobs, education and affordable health care.
Joan Karo, 69, crossed paths with Republican Chris Dudley several days ago at a Salem restaurant. She was attending a "red hat" ladies luncheon. He was looking for votes. After meeting the candidate and his wife, Karo said she'll vote for Dudley.
Her top issue: "Putting people back to work."
Campaign strategists are watching to see whether younger voters -- who helped elect Democrats in 2008 -- will remain engaged in 2010. Some may need to be persuaded.
Not Erica Wills, a freshman at Western Oregon University, who stood near the front of the line outside the Oregon Convention Center Wednesday, waiting to attend the rally with President Barack Obama.
Reading Obama's book, "The Audacity of Hope" for the third time, Wills said she turned 18 this past summer and has been looking forward to voting since the 2008 election.
The chance to see Obama drew her to the rally, but Wills said she's also been researching the candidates for governor and has decided to support Democrat John Kitzhaber.
"With the kind of problems Oregon is having, I think he has the experience that we need," she said. "I also think he has that Oregon spirit -- that spirit of working together for our future."
Though Wills is keenly interested in national and state politics, she said some younger voters are not as excited or tuned in this time around. Both she and Zakari Newton-Douglass, who lives in Forest Grove and was second in line for the Obama rally, said negative ads are a turnoff.
"I don't like watching all that negativity on TV," said Newton-Douglass, 20. "I just want them to give me the facts. I think it's better to really hear what a candidate has to say as opposed to what all these people are saying about them."
A sparse crowd of about a dozen students showed up Thursday for a Willamette University forum focusing on issues important to young voters.
"There are students who say, 'I don't know. I don't have time. I'm not going to vote, '"said Samantha Briggs, 19, who spoke at the forum on behalf of Republican candidates.
Briggs says she's supporting Dudley because "he's for education and education reform," adding that schools in her hometown of Bend were forced to close early last year and that left some students scrambling to get enough hours to graduate.
Even as they wade through mountains of campaign mail and endure nasty television commercials, voters of all ages said they crave more details.
"I really want to know what they're going to do about education and unemployment," said Toni Nanneman, 44, who is a registered Democrat but had yet to decide whom she'd pick for governor.
Michael Johnson, 42, who runs a program serving at-risk youth in Northeast Portland, said it was powerful for him as a Democrat to see Kitzhaber and the state's senators and congressmen on the same stage as Obama.
But he's also not persuaded how to vote.
"I need to find out more," Johnson said. "Our community is expecting change if it hasn't happened already. Is Kitzhaber willing to engage with the North and Northeast community and work together for that change?"
Anna Navarro, , who is 64, retired and lives in Salem, says both Kitzhaber and Dudley ought to spend some time sitting at a kitchen table listening to families and people on fixed incomes talk about how they're struggling.
Neither of the candidates, she said, has convinced her "that they're going to be a good governor."
"I don't really care for Dudley," she said, adding that she has a sense that he "cares mostly about the wealthy."
Kitzhaber?
"He's OK. But he's not forceful enough to really let people know what he's going to do that he hasn't done before."
Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, says he's noticed a trend since 2000, when Oregon started vote-by-mail. "The first few vote-by-mail elections saw a lot of 'early' early voters," he said. "That trend has lessened as the novelty of early voting has worn off.
"Second," Gronke said, "voters hold their ballots when they are undecided."
Of course, some Oregonians have made their choices with no hesitation.
Steve Rask, 62, took time away from his excavation business, to attend a Dudley campaign in Madras last Tuesday.
"I figure he's the best choice," said Rask, who added that the economy in central Oregon continues to struggle and no Democrat in the governor's office has cared much about protecting free enterprise.
Across the state, Minnie Brown, 77, left the Obama rally Wednesday night, holding her cane in one hand and a Kitzhaber sign in the other.
"I'm just feeling so excited," said Brown, who lives in Portland and campaigned for the president in 2008. "I'm ready to get out there and volunteer like I did before."
-- Michelle Cole and Kim Melton