Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins said her agency estimates more than 1.2 million votes were cast.
“We do think that we’ll get up over 1.2 million in ballots submitted in this election and that actually beats the number of votes that came in in 2008’s primary,” Atkins said.
In the 2008 primary, 1.1 million Oregonians cast ballots. So far, more than one million ballots have been counted in Tuesday’s primary.
While the state has more people voting than ever before, the turnout percentage is lower for this primary than for the 2008 primary.
About 129,000 registered to vote between the end of last year and the April 26 deadline to register to vote in the primary, Atkins said. Of that, some 50,000 were registered to vote under Oregon's new motor voter law, which automatically registers people to vote when they get a driver's license, she said.