Your Daily Guide

Give Input on New Portland Government

The city’s transition team is soliciting input on the new Portland form of government, including on committees the new 12-person City Council should have. Those under consideration include Public Health & Public Safety, Sustainability & Climate, and Housing & Homelessness. [Portland Mercury]

• Related: You, too, can answer the city’s survey. The deadline is tomorrow, April 4.

No Bottle Returns Again

Two downtown stores — Safeway and Plaid Pantry — won’t have to accept bottle or can returns again. Gov. Tina Kotek approved another 30-day exemption to the Oregon Bottle Bill. The stores and some neighbors have complained that the redemptions are fueling drug addiction and use near the stores. [Willamette Week]

Sign of Intel’s Good Fortune

Intel has resumed its air shuttle for employees — a sign that the company’s financial picture is much improved. Intel halted the flights last year. Now the company is working on a massive expansion, and has returned to offering flights for employees from the Hillsboro airport to the company’s other locations. [Oregonian]

PDX’s $2B Renovation

Christopher Neal, director of PDX Next Operations for the Port of Portland, is in charge of the $2 billion renovation at Portland International Airport. He has answers on what to expect from this expansion, whether flying has become more dangerous, and if a certain carpet is ever coming back. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

You’re probably already registered to vote.

How do I know?

Oregon is the top state in the country for getting eligible residents registered: 82.7% of all Oregonians who could register were on the voter rolls, as of the 2022 midterm elections.

By way of comparison, just 60.8% were in North Carolina — according to an analysis by the KFF Foundation, which studies health care and public policy.

Registering in Oregon takes just a couple minutes — and clicking a few buttons on the Internet (and having your driver’s license handy, if you have one). It’s that easy. But that part actually isn’t unusual: In fact, 41 states across the country have online voter registration.

But thousands of Oregonians are also automatically registered to vote. In 2016, the state was the first in the nation to have DMV take care of it for you when you visit — unless you opt out. (Since then 18 other states and Washington, D.C., have followed Oregon in adopting automatic voter registration.)

The result is that more eligible Oregonians actually cast a ballot. We’re the top of the nation in that too!

One thing Oregon hasn’t adopted: same-day voter registration for Election Day, which 20 states and Washington, D.C. have, so that you can show up, register, and vote, all on the same day. (That’s complicated by another Oregon effort to make voting accessible: vote by mail.)

Your deadline to register to vote in the May primary — on the off chance you’re not already — is April 30.

Register to Vote or Check Your Registration:

Tip: Have your driver’s license handy if you have one, and then you can easily:

• Register to vote.
• Check that you’re registered.
• Or check to make sure your new address has been updated in the voter registry.