Record number of Deschutes County voters switch party registration

An unprecedented number of Deschutes County voters have registered to vote this election year — and more voters than ever are switching parties.

“This is the first election that I’ve been super-interested in,”Bend resident Amanda Hargreaves said Friday. “Mostly because of Bernie Sanders.”

The other two remaining candidates in the race for the White House, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, are the most disliked front-runners of either party since The New York Times began polling, the newspaper reported.

“I don’t exactly like Trump, but I don’t like Hillary at all,” said Bend resident G.W. Campbell.

Another Bend resident, Dan Guglielmo, said he is supporting Sanders in the elections but is concerned about the other options.

“It’s not odd, it’s not ironic. It’s scary,” Guglielmo said.

It’s a controversial election year and voters in Deschutes County are ready to make their voices heard.

“The activity level has just been unprecedented,” Deschutes County Clerk Nancy Blankenship said.

A record number of residents have registered to vote this year. Compared to Dec. 2015, Deschutes County has over 7,000 newly registered voters. At the end of 2015, there were 101,793 registered voters, and as of Friday there were 109,061.

“We’ve never had anything that high prior to a primary election in the 13 years that I’ve been here,” Blankenship said. “It’s a huge deal.”

Blankenship said the Motor Voter bill, which automatically registers you when you get a driver’s license, accounts for only 20 percent of the increase.

“We thought we had ordered enough ballots,” Blankenship said. “But we’ve already made two additional orders.”

Another record-breaker is the number of voters who switched party affiliation. Statewide, around 110,000 voters decided to change their party. In Deschutes County, 7,500 have done so. In 2008, it was 3,099 voters, and 1,294 voters in 2012.

Blankenship said a large majority of the party affiliation changes were to the Democrats.

Blankenship said of the 7,449 party affiliation changes in Deschutes County in the first four months of the year, 4,363 were to the Democratic Party, compared to 2,376 for the Republican Party.

“People have opinions, and they’re very strong this year,” Blankenship said. “For one reason or another.”

Strong opinions that might result in a record voter turnout on the High Desert.

“I would not not vote, because I really want anybody but Trump to win at this point,” Hargreaves said.

The year with the highest primary turnout in Deschutes County was 2004 with 57 percent of the voters returning ballots.

The last day to safely mail your ballot back and have it count is next Wednesday. After that, you need to visit one of the ballot drop boxes or drop it off at the clerk’s office, to make sure your vote counts.