First Advisor

Richard A. Clucas

Date of Award

5-21-2020

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Political Science and University Honors

Department

Political Science

Language

English

Subjects

Voter turnout -- Oregon -- Warm Springs Indian Reservation -- Statistics -- Case studies, Postal voting -- United States, Indians of North America -- Suffrage, Vote-by-mail elections -- Oregon

DOI

10.15760/honors.945

Abstract

When Vote by Mail was fully implemented by the state of Oregon in 2000, it quickly became the subject of study by the Political Science community. While there is not yet an academic consensus about the impact of vote by mail, its growing popularity is undeniable. Mail voting has now been fully adopted in four states, with several others extensively offering mail ballots as an alternative to in-person voting. As this form of convenience voting spreads across the county, it is important to once again try to determine its impacts. This study examines a voting group often overlooked by academic research: Native Americans. With states like Arizona and Montana already utilizing mail ballots at high rates and both having significant Native American populations, it is not unrealistic to imagine the Native vote being impacted by even further expansion of full Vote By Mail. Using the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, located in north-central Oregon, as a case study, this research project intended to compare voter turnout before and after Vote By Mail implementation on the reservation, as well as to compare relative change between Native American and non-Native American voters. Unfortunately, government office closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic rendered it impossible to complete that statistical analysis. This article concludes with a call for additional research, given the importance of this under-researched topic.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/33475

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