The 2024 Oregon primary election was May 21 and although Election Day has passed, there still are a few things to sort out before results become official.

“Elections officials and Oregonians can be proud that we held yet another safe and smooth election,” Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said in a statement May 22. “Thanks to months of planning and preparation, partnerships across all levels of government, and the tireless work of elections workers, we were fully prepared to handle whatever came our way.”

For Umatilla and Morrow counties, voter turnout appears to have decreased in the 2024 primary compared to the 2022 primary election, at least according to preliminary data from the Oregon Secretary of State’s office.

In 2022, Morrow County had 39.2% of voters submit a ballot, but only 31.1% did so in 2024. And in Umatilla County, which consistently has one of the lowest turnouts in the state, the turnout decreased from 27.3% in 2022 to 24.6% in 2024.

But now that Election Day itself is over, there’s still time before anything is official. So what, exactly, happens after Election Day? Here are answers to some questions about the vote-counting process.

What’s done to ensure the election is fair?

According to the Secretary of State’s office, machine counting — which is faster and more accurate than hand counting — is used in all 36 counties, but the machines are never connected to the internet. Additionally, they are tested before and after the election, a total of three times, to verify they are counting ballots correctly.

Every county must conduct post-election audits, as well, meaning a sample of ballots are pulled and counted by hand. The results from the hand count are compared to the machine count to check accuracy. This has been a standard practice in the state since 2008, and the results of the hand count are posted online for anyone to review.

At any point, the public can ask questions of local elections officials and even view the processes.

Why is it that results are unofficial for now? Will they change?

Ballots may be counted toward an election as long as seven days after Election Day, as it is state law that as long as a ballot is postmarked by Election Day, it is valid and on time. This cycle, under the postmark law, ballots will be accepted until May 28 so long as they were mailed on or before May 21.

The change was made two years ago, said Kim Lindell, elections manager with Umatilla County, so there haven’t been many elections completed since it went into effect.

Lindell said she doesn’t think the postmark rule compromises election results at all, and noted other states have the practice in place as well.

“It has given those people that are procrastinators a little leeway,” she said. “I can say we have maybe 100 or 150 ballots right now that made the postmark, and they’ll come in in the next couple of days, that are going to be added to the count. I don’t think it’s going to be a drastic change to any race, really.”

Lindell said realistically, the biggest impact is results can’t be certified for 21 days now, rather than the previous 14, and for them to be official, the results must be certified by the Secretary of State’s office.

Every county has officials who are trained to match the signature on a person’s ballot to the one on file. If two officials believe a signature doesn’t match, or if someone forgot to sign their ballot, the voter is contacted by mail with the opportunity to resolve the issue.

The two weeks after the seven-day postmark window are reserved for the challenge period, Lindell said, so people have a chance to ensure their vote does count.

How do we know whether there was voter fraud, especially because of voting by mail?

There has never been widespread voter fraud in Oregon, according to the Secretary of State’s website. By careful tracking of voter information — such as when people move or register in other states — and signature verification processes, elections officials combat or catch voter fraud.

“Elections officials take many steps to protect the integrity of our elections,” the office’s website says. “Signature verification, unique barcodes, and paper material that cannot be replicated, and other security procedures are in place across the state.”

Additionally, the site says a review of the vote by mail system found that of about 61 million ballots cast in Oregon from 2000-19, 38 criminal convictions of voter fraud were made, which is a 0.00006% rate.

Lindell said the process of signature verification — done on every envelope — is the very first step in the vote counting process.

“Honestly, I don’t believe that the general public believes that we look at every signature and that we do it all the way across the state of Oregon,” Lindell said. “Even in Multnomah County where they got 93,000 ballots in the last few days, they’re looking at every one of those signatures just like we are here in Umatilla County, where we don’t even have that many voters.”

The ballot envelope, where people sign to verify it’s theirs, is scanned and then a trained official compares specific aspects of the signature to any previous ballots and voter registration cards — current or past — on file. The current signature is compared side by side with previous signatures.

If the signature doesn’t match, a second person takes a look to confirm and the voter is contacted with instructions on how to validate their ballot.

If the signature does match, then the ballot is separated from the envelope to be counted.

How do election results get certified?

The certification process begins after all signatures are verified and a final count can be made official. It consists of then sending an abstract of votes, breaking down the voting results of a district by precinct, to the individual voting districts, like a city or county.

The district accepts the results, which are confirmed again by the county elections team, and then sent to the state to be certified by the Secretary of State.

“It’s just certifying that we’ve counted all of the ballots, that our received ballot count matches our tabulation count, and here’s the results of those numbers and how they voted in each race,” Lindell said. “Once the results are certified, then the candidates will get certificates of either nomination or election, so either they’re elected or they’re nominated forward in this election.”

Griffin-Valade, as secretary of state, will certify election results from the May 21 races no later than June 27.