Oregon just shy of record voter turnout

Oregon may just miss having a record-breaking voter turnout for the 2008 election cycle, according to numbers released by the Secretary of State’s office on Friday.

86.2 percent of registered Oregon voters returned their ballots by the 8 p.m. deadline on November 4. The record for Oregon voter participation in a general election is 86.5 percent, set in 1960.

Of the registered parties, Democrats led the way by getting 834,438 votes returned, or 89.6 percent of ballots. Oregon Republicans were not far off that percent return, getting 88.8 percent of registered voters to return their ballots. But because there are many fewer Republicans in the Beaver State than there are Democrats, that high percentage of voter returns only translated into 617,530 votes cast.