Washington County voters heading into a packed Nov. 3 ballot got a warning from state officials: use a drop box, not a mailbox.

More than 7,300 Oregon ballots went uncounted in the May primary because of postal delays. Secretary of State Tobias Read, Gov. Tina Kotek and U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley held a press conference Tuesday, Sept. 8, at the state Capitol in Salem urging voters to switch to drop boxes for November, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reported via the Valley Times.

The November ballot in Washington County includes a runoff for county commission chair between Commissioners Pam Treece and Nafisa Fai, a District 4 commission runoff between former Hillsboro Mayor Steve Callaway and Hillsboro City Councilor Kipperlyn Sinclair, and contested races for Tigard mayor and three City Council seats, according to The Oregonian's election guide.

Washington County voters already have access to BallotTrax, a system that sends text alerts tracking a ballot from the moment it is mailed through signature verification and counting. Only four other counties offer it: Clackamas, Marion, Multnomah and Yamhill.

Read's funding request includes about $150,000 to expand BallotTrax to all 36 Oregon counties before November.

The rejection problem traces to U.S. Postal Service changes that route all Oregon mail through a Portland processing center. In most of the state, a letter does not receive a postmark until at least the day after it is mailed.

Oregon law, updated in 2022, allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive within seven days. But of the more than 55,000 ballots that arrived during that grace period after the May primary, 13.1% lacked a timely postmark and were not counted. That rate was up from 9.5% two years earlier, PBS NewsHour reported.

"More Oregonians had their voices go unheard just because their ballots couldn't make it through the mail in time," Read said. "That is unacceptable."

Read advised voters who plan to mail ballots to do so at least one week before Election Day. The safer option is a drop box. Read is asking the Legislature's emergency board for $1.25 million in emergency funds, including $120,000 for 20 new 24-hour drop boxes at $6,000 each and $344,000 for operational support at existing sites.

The request also includes about $153,000 for county election support and $480,000 to reimburse counties that must mail notices to inactive voters. The Secretary of State's Office has not said where the new boxes would be placed.

Oregon is among the states that sued to block a Postal Service rule and a presidential executive order that officials say could further disrupt mail voting. A federal judge had blocked those rules from taking effect as of Sept. 8, according to The Oregonian.

County elections offices begin mailing ballots Oct. 14. Ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3 or placed in an official drop box by 8 p.m. that day. The Legislature's emergency board is scheduled to vote on Read's funding request Thursday, Sept. 10.