About 13,000 Baker County residents will be eligible to vote in the Nov. 5 election, the largest electorate in the county’s history.

As of September, the county had 12,992 registered voters, according to the Oregon Elections Division.

That’s up from 12,926 voters a year ago.

And compared with the most recent presidential election year, 2020, the county’s voter roll has risen by about 650.

Baker County Clerk Stefanie Kirby said her office will send mail ballots for the Nov. 5 election on Oct. 16.

The last day to register to vote in that election is Oct. 15.

Oregonians can register to vote online at secure.sos.state.or.us/orestar/vr/register.do, or by visiting the county clerk’s office in the Baker County Courthouse, 1995 Third St.

The total of registered voters across Oregon has increased substantially since the state’s “motor voter” law took effect Jan. 1, 2016.

The law requires the state to mail a notice to people who are eligible to vote, but who aren’t registered, after they visit a DMV to apply for or renew their driver’s license.

People who receive the notice have 21 days to respond.

If they don’t respond, they are automatically registered as nonaffiliated voters.

People who receive the notice can also choose, either then or later, to register with a political party.

During the first nine months the law was in effect, from Jan. 1-Sept. 30, 2016, Baker County added 1,286 voters to its rolls — a 13% increase. Most of the new voters — 972 — were registered through the motor voter law, and most of those, 880, were not affiliated with a party.

For the 2012 general election, 10,167 Baker County residents were registered to vote.

Since then the county’s electorate has risen by more than 2,800 people, a nearly 28% jump.

Voter turnout statewide has dropped since the motor voter law started boosting the number of registered voters.

Oregon’s overall turnout in the three general elections that included a presidential election, prior to motor voter, were:

• 2012: 82.8%

• 2008: 85.7%

• 2004: 86.5%

Turnout for the two elections since motor voter took effect:

• 2016: 80.3%

• 2020: 78.5%

Voter registration breakdown by party

One statistic that hasn’t changed dramatically since the motor voter law is the plurality of registered Republicans in Baker County.

As of September 2024, there were 5,812 registered Republicans in the county, 44.7% of the electorate and the largest category.

Registered Republicans made up 47.1% of the county’s voters in September 2020, and 48.7% in September 2016.

There have been bigger changes, though, over the past eight years in the proportions of the two other main categories of voter registration — Democrat and nonaffiliated.

The percentage of Baker County voters registered as Democrats dropped from 19.6% in September 2016 to 16.6% in September 2020, and to 14.1% in September 2024.

Nonaffiliated voters, meanwhile, make up a much larger share of the county’s electorate than they did eight years ago.

With most newly registered voters being assigned as nonaffiliated voters through the motor voter law, that category has risen from 25.1% of Baker County’s voter total in September 2016, to 29.9% in September 2020 and to 33.9% in September 2024.

The breakdown from September in the past three presidential election years:

2024

• Total registered voters: 12,992

• Republicans: 5,812 (44.7%)

• Democrats: 1,826 (14.1%)

• Nonaffiliated: 4,414 (33.9%)

2020

• Total registered voters: 12,356

• Republicans: 5,816 (47.1%)

• Democrats: 1,826 (14%)

• Nonaffiliated: 3,694 (29.9%)

2016

• Total registered voters: 10,915

• Republicans: 5,319 (48.7%)

• Democrats: 2,137 (19.6%)

• Nonaffiliated: 2,740 (25.1%)

Percentage of county voters registered to vote

As of this September, 76.8% of Baker County’s nearly 17,000 residents are registered to vote.

That’s the 10th-highest percentage among Oregon’s 36 counties, and the second-highest in Northeastern Oregon.

Wallowa County ranks first in the region and state, with 82.8% of its 7,600 residents registered to vote.

The other counties with a higher percentage than Baker:

• Crook — 80.9% of its 26,500 residents

• Columbia — 79.7% of its 53,100 residents

• Sherman — 78.9% of its 1,900 residents

• Lincoln — 78.5% of its 51,900 residents

• Josephine — 78.2% of its 88,800 residents

• Curry — 78% of its 24,400 residents

• Douglas — 77.7% of its 113,700 residents

• Tillamook — 77% of its 28,000 residents

The figure for other counties in Northeastern Oregon:

• Union — 73.4% of its 26,300 residents

• Malheur — 55.1% of its 33,000 residents

• Grant — 74.5% of its 7,400 residents

• Umatilla — 61.6% of its 81,800 residents

• Morrow — 55.7% of its 13,000 residents

In Multnomah County, Oregon’s most populous with 805,000 residents, 70% are registered to vote.

In Washington County, which ranks second with 610,000 residents, 64.4% are registered to vote.