The Secretary of State’s office mailed out the January Special Election voters’ pamphlet (pdf) today. For having only two things on the ballot, it’s a hefty read. The pamphlet clocks in at 91 pages altogether.
Most of those pages are pure bickering: forty six pages of arguments in favor of the two tax measures on the ballot, twenty pages of arguments against the measures.
Also arriving in Portland today is a unique issue of the Mercury designed to fill your voting needs. Check it out! The cover doubles as your 100% legally compliant voter registration form.

- Register to vote! For the children!
If you’ve changed addresses or parties in the year since Obama won, just rip off the cover, write out your info, track down a stamp and drop it in a mailbox. Easy. Awesome. You’re welcome.
Of course, some people are not content with print.
“What is this, fuckin’ 1920s Russia? Why can’t I do this on the internet?” whines Mercury Editor Wm. Steven Humphrey, who still hasn’t registered to vote despite the looming January 5th deadline. The Oregon legislature feels the same way, actually. Last session they passed a bill mandating that the state create a way to register to vote online starting March 1st, 2010, in time for the May primary.
Washington, California, Utah and Arizona have also voted to allow online registration, proving once again that the West > Rest of the Country. Online registration is good news for young people: when Washington created online voter registration in January 2008, 40 percent of new voters registered online and half of those registrants were under the age of 30, according to local political action squad the Bus Project.

smirk, smirk, smirk….
What’re we gonna do with you?
“The cover doubles as your 100% legally complaint voter registration form.”
Please tell me why this sentence is very confusing to me. I also wish the State would change the dimensions of the voter registration card to be the size of either a business card or a standard ID.
VOTE MARY VOLM.
This is an inspired idea. Great job, Mercury.
I have a complaint about the word compliant being spelled like the word complaint.
Vote registers you!
Dear Ding-a-ling (Sarah): I am already registered to voteโI just haven’t changed my address since my recent move, so I have to RE-register! And BTW, I rarely, if ever, “whine.” I just hate anything that involves using a pen! CAN’T I JUST TWITTER MY RE-REGISTRATION???
“Oh,” Oregonians bemoan, “folks living in Washington have it so easy, they can register to vote ONLINE!”
Unless you have a WA ID, WRONG! YOU ARE WRONG! SO FUCKING WRONG!
I had to *FAX* my update to my voter registration! Seriously a fax! With the beeeee-beepaleepaleepaleep and everything!
AWESOME COVER IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!