Two unopened Washington County ballots for Oregon's 2026 primary election sit on a table, Monday, May 11, 2026.
Meagan Cuthill / OPB
Mail-in voting in Oregon and other states will continue as usual this election year.
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a Trump administration effort to restrict vote by mail.
Oregon election workers have been watching the legal back-and-forth on this issue closely because Oregon is one of the few states that conducts elections solely by mail.
As the Deschutes County Clerk, Steve Dennison is the top elections official there. He spoke with “All Things Considered” host Geoff Norcross.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed using AI and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB journalist.
Geoff Norcross: When you heard about the Supreme Court’s decision, what went through your mind?
Steve Dennison: A bit of a relief, to be honest. Even though we had been moving forward with business-as-usual planning, having that lingering question about what the USPS would or wouldn’t do when we mailed ballots or voters returned them, of course, was a lingering concern, even though the laws hadn’t changed and our rules had not changed to that point. But once hearing that, there was a bit of relief.
Steve Dennison is the Deschutes County Clerk.
Courtesy Steve Dennison
Norcross: The president’s order would have done a number of things. But for your purposes, it would have required you to add barcodes to ballots that go to eligible voters, so the U.S. Postal Service would know if they could be delivered. And the Supreme Court decision basically means your office doesn’t have to do that, at least not now. What might it have meant for you if the high court said the president’s order can stand?
Dennison: A change like that is so significant. I’ll use an example. A few years ago, when the state started paying for prepaid postage for voters to return their ballots, it required all 36 counties to redesign our ballot return envelopes to allow just for that simple postage to be on there and other USPS requirements. That took months, and that was a simple change. Something like this would take a lot more time and planning to ensure that it was done properly and effectively and that it worked.
Norcross: There have been lawsuits filed, injunctions imposed, injunctions lifted, lawsuits refiled, questions about standing, this decision from the Supreme Court. There have been so many turns in this story, and it’s been going on since March. How closely did you follow all that?
Dennison: Yes, you’re right, so many twists and turns, and it’s been dizzying. To be honest, it’s been a lot to keep track of. I will say, the 36 counties, we communicate very well, very effectively with one another. The state has been fantastic in sharing every one of those twists and turns when they were significant enough to talk about. So being in lockstep with each other as counties and with the secretary of state’s office has been important, and it’s kept us up to date.
Norcross: It seems pretty clear this election can go forward as planned and you can start mailing out your ballots as they are. What about future elections? Do you see this legal drama playing out again?
Dennison: Boy, I hope not. But I don’t know. I don’t know that anybody has a real sense of closure over any of this. I mean, if you had asked me a year ago if we would have been talking about something as drastic of a change as what this was, as close to the election, I would have said that that was nonsense and impossible. So I wouldn’t say that this chapter is permanently closed. But then again, I’m not the lawyer. We will be following along with the secretary of state’s office, and if something does come down the pike that does require a change or us to change our materials or process, we know that we won’t be doing it alone as a county or as a state. We would be all in it together. I just hope that we have plenty of runway to be able to implement any of those changes effectively.
Norcross: What’s your message to Deschutes County voters who have been hearing the news and have been hearing a lot of different stories about what’s happening to their right to vote?
Dennison: I’ve been maintaining the statement that it is business as usual, and it has been business as usual because the laws here in Oregon had not changed, and they still haven’t. Everything is intact. Voters can expect to receive their ballot in a timely manner as they always have. We are mailing ballots across the state here to all registered voters on Oct. 14th. We ask voters to give their ballots a few days to work their way through the mail. They’ll likely receive it by that weekend. But if voters don’t have their ballot in their hand by the week of Oct. 19th, contact your county clerk’s office, stop by your county clerk’s office, pick up a ballot and then have your plan and be ready to vote that ballot and return it timely.
Norcross: And on the topic of returning, the secretary of state says it’s a good idea to use a dropbox and not mail it in. That’s always true, but it’s especially true this year. Do you believe that too?
Dennison: Using a dropbox, it’s just like going from the voter’s hands to the county clerks office’s hands. It’s a direct chain of custody. I don’t want to discourage anybody from using the mail. Some people prefer to use the mail. I would just say that, if you are choosing to use the mail, just make sure you do mail it early, mail it timely. Don’t wait. Anything later than that week before Election Day is getting really close to crunch time. If you are going to mail it and it’s getting closer to Election Day, take it to the post office directly and ask them to hand postmark that ballot for you. Get that valid postmark on or before Election Day so that when we receive it, we can count it.
