A west coast effort to end vote by mail is gaining support in Oregon. A bill introduced in Oregon’s Senate proposes a ballot measure to make in-person voting on one day the standard, along with requiring voter ID. Deschutes Republicans support the group. Vice Chair Conne Welchel believes it would improve election security.
“Oregon’s laws make it easy to vote; great. But also easy to cheat. We need a system where it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat. So being able to do that in person would alleviate a lot of these risks, these gaps in our current laws.”
Under the “End VBM” proposal, Oregon would end automatic voter registration, voters would be required to show ID, and would have to cast a ballot in-person on one day.
“There is still also the option of getting absentee ballots, just like that was done for decades, a long time ago, where if people can’t vote in person for whatever reason, they would still have the option of the absentee ballot.”
Although, the “End VBM” website says that would only be allowed in “justified cases”. A bill introduced in the Oregon Senate also aims to send a request to end vote-by-mail to the 2026 ballot.
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