Washington County voters who plan to mail their ballots should get them in the mail by Tuesday, Oct. 27, or use a drop box instead. That's the message from Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read after changes to U.S. Postal Service procedures created new uncertainty about postmark timing.

The warning comes as the state rolls out BallotTrax statewide for the first time, as first reported by the Oregon Capital Chronicle. The free tool lets voters track their ballot by text, email or phone. Washington County was already one of five counties with access to BallotTrax. The statewide expansion, funded with $150,000 in new state money, now covers all 36 counties for the 2026 midterm election only.

Why the rush

Under new USPS procedures, all mail in Oregon is routed to a central hub in Portland before it receives a postmark and is sent to its destination. In past elections, a ballot dropped in a mailbox before the carrier's pickup on Election Day would be postmarked that same day. That's no longer guaranteed.

Daniel Cortez, president of the Oregon chapter of the American Postal Workers Union, joined Read at an Oct. 13 news conference. "It used to be postmark meant: when the postal service received that item. Now, it's when it goes across a machine," Cortez said, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle.

Read and his office conducted a mail-delivery test in August, sending 108 pieces of mail on three separate weekdays to all 36 county elections offices. All pieces were postmarked in time, but delivery varied widely in rural areas. One piece sent to Harney County took 11 days to arrive.

Under Oregon law, mailed ballots must be postmarked on or before Nov. 3. Ballots arriving up to a week after Election Day still count if they carry a timely postmark. But with the new routing, Read said voters who choose the mail should send ballots by Oct. 27.

Voters can also walk up to a USPS retail counter and ask a clerk for a manual postmark on the spot, Cortez said.

How to track your ballot

Voters can sign up at OregonVotes.gov/Track with their ZIP code, date of birth and first and last name. The service sends alerts when a ballot is mailed to the voter, received by the county elections office, accepted for counting, or flagged for a signature issue.

Read said in a statement that the tool gives every Oregon voter the same access and confidence that their vote counts, regardless of where they live. He called it an upgrade for the state's vote-by-mail system.

The Legislature's Joint Emergency Board approved $1.25 million in September for election infrastructure. Of that, $150,000 funded the BallotTrax expansion. The rest paid for more than 20 new ballot drop boxes statewide, county election office support and mailings to inactive voters, according to the Oregon Capital Chronicle.

Local drop boxes

Tigard and Tualatin each have an official ballot drop site, according to the Beaverton Valley Times:

  • Tigard: Tigard City Hall, 13125 S.W. Hall Blvd.
  • Tualatin: Tualatin City Offices/Tualatin Public Library, 18880 S.W. Martinazzi Ave.

All ballots must be returned to a drop box or county elections office by 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Voters who haven't received a ballot should contact Washington County Elections at 503-846-5800.