PENDLETON — Voters in Umatilla County stayed on trend with previous election results during the Nov. 5 general election.

President-elect Donald Trump won the county with 20,422 votes, or 67.1%, according to preliminary counts. Vice President Kamala Harris earned 8,947 votes, equating to 29.5%. This tracks with the previous elections during which Trump has been a candidate, although the percentage is slightly higher in his favor this year, even if the overall turnout was lower.

Dan Lonai, director of administrative services with the Umatilla County Elections Department, said Trump in 2016 earned 61.8% of the vote, increasing to 63.8% in 2020, when he received 21,270 votes. Conversely, President Biden earned 10,707 votes in Umatilla County — about 32% of the vote — in 2020.

How to explain low turnout

The voter turnout in Umatilla County, and Oregon more broadly, is tracking lower this election than the 2020 general election. Four years ago, statewide turnout was 78.50%, but this year, it’s 65.56%. The county’s turnout this year is expected to be a little more than 60%, but ballots still were being counted as of Nov. 8, since they can be postmarked as late as Election Day, Nov. 5.

“We’re at about four percentage points below the average for the state,” Lonai said. “I would say historically that’s an improvement. Going back to 2022, Umatilla County had 53.3%, whereas the state turnout was almost 67%.”

Part of this lower turnout might be attributable to the state’s 2016 Motor Voter Act, said Steve Craigen, elections/records supervisor with the county. Under this law, an eligible, unregistered voter who applies for, renews or replaces their driver’s license is automatically registered to vote unless the person opts out.

But Lonai said the effect of the Motor Voter Law alone is not enough to explain the low turnout percentage.

“The amount that increased doesn’t, proportionally, say the reason why we’re down so low,” he said. “I think people just weren’t as motivated to go out and vote this year as they were in the previous presidential election.”

The county processed more than 30,000 ballots throughout the election. However, not every ballot had a valid signature after a thorough, multi-step verification process, leaving 691 voters as of Nov. 8 that the county will request new voter registration signatures from in order to validate their ballot.

Signature challenges

For elections officials in Umatilla County, this year has seen especially high numbers of signatures on ballots that don’t match the signatures they have on file.

Craigen said he believes some of the discrepancies have to do with 16-year-olds getting their licenses who don’t know how to write in cursive well or haven’t needed a consistent signature. Then, when it’s time to vote in a couple years, their cursive signature no longer matches.

The mismatch also is pretty common for older folks, he said, whose signatures change as their health, handwriting or eyesight does.

During the election, when a signature on an envelope doesn’t match the one on file for an individual, the ballot isn’t counted because it can’t be verified that it’s from the correct person. The county sends the voter a letter asking them to register with the signature they used on their ballot, and if they do so within 21 days of the election, their vote counts.

In this election, Craigen said, there are nearly 700 ballots that don’t have matching signatures. He expects fewer than 50 people will submit a new registration card so their ballot can be counted this time.

“The election’s over,” he said, “and, you know, whether or not their ballot was counted (they may think) ‘It turned out the way I wanted it to be,’ and off they go.”

However, the county will inactivate registrations that have mismatching signatures, and voters with inactive status will not receive a ballot during future elections. Signatures they add to petitions would also not be valid.

A smooth election

“I don’t care how you vote. I just care that you vote,” Craigen said. “That’s a sign of a good, healthy democracy, is when people participate in said democracy and turn out to vote.”

Lonai wants people to be informed voters and to vote in the races that matter to them. He said people should vote for what they’ve researched and believe rather than “randomly pick something” because they think they need to fill out the whole ballot.

Craigen said he believes communities are stronger when people participate in decisions by voting.

“It all stems back to the individual taking the time to vote and not agreeing to the status quo,” he said, “because if they don’t vote, they’re essentially just giving up their rights (to have input on the outcome). And they may or may not agree with it.”

Despite the high number of invalid signatures, Craigen said this was “one of the smoothest elections” that he’s ever been involved in.

He said the approximately 25 officials worked efficiently throughout the election to make it run successfully.

As the month goes on, the county will finish processing valid votes and then certify the results of the election. It’s possible result percentages and numbers will change while the process continues.

NE Oregon voter turnout

Baker: 73.4%

Grant: 80.3%

Morrow: 65.4%

Umatilla: 61%

Union: 74.3%

Wallowa: 80.4%