Democrat Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley want the entire United States to adopt the “Oregon Way” for mail-in voting and have 11 other senators backing them.
The Vote at Home Act would provide prepaid envelopes to return ballots for every registered voter, and requires automatic voter registration in states.
“I’m not sure you want to follow Oregon about anything,” J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation, told The Daily Signal. “Oregon has serious problems with all mail-in elections.”
Oregon, the first state to have all mail-in voting, recently settled with the Public Interest Legal Foundation in April over the state’s failure to retain voter list maintenance records as required by the National Voter Registration Act. In the settlement, Oregon officials admitted they received but didn’t retain “deceased retraction” reports, according to the foundation. The federal law requires states to maintain the records for two years.
Oregon ranks 48th on The Heritage Foundation’s Election Scorecard for election integrity laws.
Wyden is the lead sponsor in the Senate, while fellow Oregonian Merkley is one of a dozen Senate Democrat co-sponsors. Rep. Val Hoyle, D-Ore., is the House sponsor.
While the proposal has little chance of passing this session, it in some ways resembles the Democrats’ attempted election overhaul in 2021 in a bill dubbed the “For the People Act” that called for universal mail-voting, but also effectively supplanted state voter ID laws.
“Of course, they will try to do this if they have a majority,” Adams said. “Democrats are playing the long game.”
As noted in my book “The Myth of Voter Suppression,” the vast majority of voter fraud scandals that led to criminal charges or overturned elections stemmed from absentee and mail-in ballots.
Wyden’s bill requires every registered voter in America to get a ballot in the mail at least one week before the election, would guarantee the right to use a drop box or mail, and enact automatic voter registration for every eligible citizen. Voters could still opt to vote in person under the bill.
“With Trump taking over the Oval Office, far-right legislators across our country are more emboldened to make voting more difficult for millions of Americans,” Wyden said in a statement.
“Voting is a fundamental constitutional right. It should be easy, and bringing the Oregon Way of vote-at-home nationwide will guarantee that every eligible voter can make their voices heard,” Wyden continued.
Merkley argued the proposal shouldn’t be a partisan issue.
“Expanding vote by mail nationwide is a secure way to ensure all eligible voters can exercise this constitutional right,” Merkley said in a statement.
Hoyle argued, “We have seen the positive impact that mail in voting has had in Oregon—not only does it improve access for eligible voters, but every ballot has a paper copy making it the most secure form of voting.”
Other Senate co-sponsors are Democrat Sens. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; Michael Bennet of Colorado; Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut; Cory Booker of New Jersey; Maria Cantwell of Washington; Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey of Massachusetts; Brian Schatz of Hawaii; Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Peter Welch of Vermont; and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.