Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregonians have less than a week to vote in this month's tax election. But elections workers are already starting to count up the votes.

That's thanks to a new law that gives county clerks a head start in tabulating the totals. Chris Lehman explains.

This is a first. It's an entire week before Election Day, but optical scan machines are already tallying votes at the Marion County Clerk's office in Salem.

Normally this machine would be silent until the morning of Election Day.

That's when workers would scramble furiously to produce results as soon after the polls closed as possible.

Oregon lawmakers last year approved a measure that allows workers to start counting up to a week before the deadline to vote.

Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess says it could spell the end of post-midnight elections results.

Bill Burgess:  "I expect it will save us several hours. With this, we're going to get further ahead of the game."

Even though workers will count votes before Election Day, no results will be released until after the polls close. More than half-a-million ballots have been returned so far across Oregon.

Ballot drop locations