QuickTake:

Lookout has assembled a guide if you still need to fill out your ballot. And we will be tracking results after voting ends at 8 p.m.

For political junkies, it’s almost time for the greatest show on Earth. No, we’re not talking about the circus with acrobats and cars packed with clowns.

We’re talking about the Tuesday, May 19, elections in Lane County — and you have until 8 p.m. to cast your votes. On the ballot are races for county commission, the Eugene City Council and the state Legislature.  If you’re registered with a party, you can have your say on who should be the Democratic or Republican nominees for governor and Congress in the November general election.

Voters also will decide ballot measures that would give more tax money to fire districts, the Oregon State University Extension Service and others, including a statewide transportation measure to raise money for road and bridge construction.

Now that Election Day is here, we’ve compiled a guide about what you need to know if you’re still planning to submit a ballot today — and what to expect when the results are announced. 

How to vote

Lane County has 285,064 registered voters, as of April 30 figures. If voting trends are any indication, only about a third of them will vote in Tuesday’s election.

During Lane County’s primaries in 2022 — the last year with contested gubernatorial races — nearly 100,000 voters submitted ballots, a turnout of 36.6%, according to Oregon Secretary of State records. That’s slightly more than 1 in 3 registered voters. As of Friday, turnout was about 18.4%.

The deadline to register to vote has already passed. This means if you registered to vote, you should have already received a ballot in the mail.

Oregon offers mail-in voting. This means you don’t have to wait in long lines to cast your ballot.  

The catch: Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked by May 19 (today) and arrive in the mail by May 26 to be counted toward the election.

Our postal system is strained, though, and if you drop your envelope in the mail now, it may not be postmarked by the deadline. In fact, state and local officials recommended that voters who use the mail do so by May 12 to make sure you get that postmark on time. One option, if you really want to support the U.S. Postal Service, is to get your envelope manually postmarked by a clerk at the post office. 

Lane County has a preferred option: You can leave your ballot at any of the county’s 21 ballot drop box locations before 8 p.m. 

How ballots are counted

The Lane County Elections Office has an intricate system that collects, tracks and processes the county’s ballots — all with accountability and accuracy at the forefront. 

For instance, two-person teams collect ballots at the dropbox sites. Barcodes and chain-of-custody records keep track of ballots from start to finish.

That work at the elections office includes ballot deconstruction, signature verification and running ballots through machines to reconcile results.

How to track and watch results 

As you’re watching your top race results, don’t jump to conclusions when you see razor-thin margins.

The results and outcomes of races may not be quickly obvious on election night. In fact, the outcomes of some races may not be known for days. 

That’s because ballots postmarked by May 19 may take several days to arrive at the county elections office. Those will still count toward the results of the race, provided they arrive by May 26. This means that a race with a thin margin could well change in a few days as more ballots arrive in the mail and are processed.

On the flip side, a race that shows a wide margin of victory is unlikely to change based on the ballots that arrive in the mail in the days ahead.

Lookout Eugene-Springfield will be tracking returns on election night starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday with an update after 11 p.m. We will also update races in the days ahead as more ballots arrive. Our election coverage is free for readers and doesn’t require a membership.

You can also view election returns starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday, with an 11 p.m. update scheduled, at www.LaneCountyOR.gov/Elections.

Election results will be certified June 25. Voters with questions can email elections@lanecountyor.gov or call 541-682-4234.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.