Oregon's primary election system is closed. That means only voters who have registered as members of a political party may participate in the nomination of candidates. As KLCC's Tiffany Eckert reports, elections officials want voters to check their registration status and party affiliation.
Jim Williams is Elections Director for the Secretary of State.
He says his office has been getting calls from people convinced their party affiliation has been changed. Williams says when they look at the original registration card submitted, there is no political party checked.
Williams: "They may have very well intended to register with a particular party but by not doing so, then the County Clerk would have automatically registered them as a non-affiliated voter."
Williams says the open seat for President has increased interest in this year's primary election process.
As to recent allegations of voter suppression in the Arizona primary, Williams says:
Williams: "I've seen the words fraud and hacking mentioned. Our voter registration system is very secure. We've never had any instances of hacking. And we're constantly monitoring it to assure that it doesn't happen."
And if something *does happen? Williams says there are fail safes. Any time a change is made to a voter's record, the county clerk sends a voter notification card. That is when any mistakes can be found and fixed.
April 26th is the deadline to change political party affiliation or register to vote in the May primary. This can be done onlineor at county elections offices.
