Boiler Bay Beacon
NEWPORT (Ore.) — Mail-in voting may be easy on 41,000 Lincoln County voters, but it’s nerve-rackingly hard on the handful of people who answer to an unremitting flow of ballots.
“I’m tired,” acknowledged Lincoln Co. Clerk Amy Southwell 10 days after a sharply-contested May 19, 2026 primary election that had yet to be called. “This race began last September, when people could start filing for office, and it won’t be over until July when we report on the election costs.”
Besides overseeing a growing number of complex elections, the $1 million clerk’s office manages thousands of public records including marriage and business licenses, property deeds and other vital documents.
Even with temporary election help that grows her seven-person office to 25, it is an undermanned system with more moving parts than a Swiss watch. Counting multiple recall elections, special elections for bonds and budgets, and the general election on Nov. 3, Southwell will face more than 275 rigid election deadlines in 2026 according to the Oregon Secretary of State.
“The legislature continually puts more work on clerks with no money from the state,” reflected Southwell, a Toledo, Ore., native who is running unopposed for a second term in the Nov. 3 general election. “It’s the same for the cities — they don’t pay their fair share of election costs, so county taxpayers are left to foot the bill.”
Oregon became the first state to employ universal mail-in voting in 2000, replacing election day with a primary voting season that stretches about four months from the mailing of ballots to the final results. Designed to increase voter participation and accessibility, its results are mixed. While critics claim vote-by-mail is susceptible to fraud, voting officials have their own beefs, too.
“It’s a love-hate relationship,” Southwell concluded. “It was implemented the year after I joined the clerk’s office. While you want people to vote and have access, there has to be more accountability than just going to the DMV and getting registered automatically, which is why Lincoln County has so many non-affiliated voters (NAVs), and why there are so many lazy voters not returning their ballots.”
A recent count showed more than 41,000 registered voters, an implausible 80 percent of Lincoln County’s population, with turnout below 50 percent in the 2026 primary. Non-affiliated voters lead with 15,537, followed by 13,113 registered Democrats, 8,641 Republicans and various minor parties.
“When Gov. Kate Brown and the state legislature put in the Motor Voter Act, many clerks around Oregon didn’t want it,” noted Southwell, who relies on cameras, sworn oaths and the prospect of jail time to bolster ballot security. “We want people on our rolls who want to vote.”
Under Oregon’s leisurely mail-in election law, primary ballots were still arriving from around the state by snail-mail while others were being “cured” for inattentive errors, such as failing to sign. But like a juggler with numerous objects in the air, she had her eyes on yet another election before the current ballot is completed.
“We just got done checking signatures for another recall vote in Waldport and it looks like they’ve got enough,” she said, noting how an earlier council-wide recall was rejected on technical grounds. “This will probably happen in July.”
in an election for Position # 2 on a Special Road District a couple years ago I experienced how things work state wide and locally. A “write in” on the ballot is put into a pile, not tallied up at the end of the vote, but thrown away. A week after the end of election I call the County Clerks office to discuss the matter. Amy Southwell was the new County Clerk. She informed me of the whole process very well and most informative to me, the actual winner of the election. Thus changing the election results in my favor. She sent me a full explanation of what happened, and an apology from the office for the mishandling of the election, for which wasn’t her fault but the Counties policy for not counting “write-in votes”. She told me this set presentence for the county elections process. I thank you Mrs Southwell, you are professional and an asset to our community. You have my vote for sure, thanks. Respectfully Don T. Wisener, President N. New Bridge Special Road District.