Welcome to the Thursday, May 21, Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:

1. Coronavirus update: Keeping up with election law and process changes 
2. Biden, Trump win Oregon’s presidential primaries; Balmer wins re-election to state Supreme Court
3. Local roundup

Updates on stories related to the coronavirus outbreak are current through Wednesday afternoon. Click here for the latest news.

Coronavirus update: Keeping up with election law and process changes

Oregon held statewide primary elections this week and as I reported in the May 19 Brew, 12 states and Washington, D.C., will hold presidential or statewide primaries in less than two weeks—on June 2. But even though elections are resuming, states are continuing to change their voting procedures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

To date, 28 states have made changes to their voting procedures. This includes canceling in-person voting, automatically sending mail-in-ballots to voters for 2020 elections, and extending absentee ballot and electronic voter registration deadlines.

The following is a sampling of states which have seen changes to election procedures over the last two weeks:

• Date change: 
  • On May 19, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a lower court decision reinstating New York's Democratic presidential preference primary on June 23.
• Mail-in ballot rules: 
  • Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) announced that all registered voters in the Aug. 2 primary and Nov. 3 general election would automatically receive mail-in ballot applications.
  • New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) issued an executive order May 15 providing for expanded mail-in voting in the July 7 elections. All registered, active Democratic and Republican voters will automatically receive mail-in ballots. Unaffiliated and inactive voters will automatically receive mail-in ballot applications.
  • South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed legislation May 13 allowing any eligible South Carolina voter to request an absentee ballot for the state's June 9 primary and subsequent runoff elections.
  • On May 8, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an executive order directing county election officials to send mail-in ballots to all registered voters in the Nov. 3 general election.

Our latest edition of The Ballot Bulletin newsletter—issued yesterday—includes a summary of these election postponements and modifications to absentee and mail-in voting due to the COVID-19 outbreak. It also has an analysis of how the pandemic may affect the 2020 redistricting cycle. If you’re interested in election policy at the federal, state, and local levels, you'll want to subscribe. Click here to sign up and get the next edition in your email.

Here are some other notable coronavirus-related updates since Wednesday's Brew:

• Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) announced Ohioans Protecting Ohioans Urgent Health Advisory, which replaces the state’s stay-at-home order, Stay Safe Ohio. Under the new order, residents are strongly encouraged but not required to stay home as much as possible.
• Judge Samuel Frederick Biery, of the United States District for the Western District of Texas, ordered that all eligible Texas voters be allowed to cast absentee ballots in order to avoid transmission of COVID-19.
• U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus ordered Ohio to accept electronic signatures and extended the signature deadline from July 1 to July 31 for certain ballot measure campaigns that were plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
• California State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said that schools in the state would not have a shared common reopening. Instead, individual districts will set reopening dates, with some targeting reopening as early as June. This is similar to the way the schools were closed to in-person instruction. The state recommended that all schools close on March 20, but many districts had already closed by that time.
• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced that the city’s schools would conduct summer school virtually. De Blasio said that more than 177,000 students were enrolled in summer programs, up from 44,000 last year.
• The Illinois Supreme Court issued an order authorizing courts to return to normal operation starting on June 1. Under the order, chief judges in each judicial circuit may implement plans specific to the county they serve. Local plans should continue to promote the use of video and phone conferencing where appropriate.

Learn more

       

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Biden, Trump win Oregon’s presidential primaries; Balmer wins re-election to state Supreme Court

Because Oregon exclusively uses a vote-by-mail system, there were no election changes in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Here are the results of this week’s battleground elections:

• Joe Biden won the state’s Democratic presidential primary with 67% of the vote. President Donald Trump won Oregon’s Republican primary with 94% of the vote.
• Thomas Balmer defeated Van Pounds to win re-election to the state Supreme Court. According to unofficial results, Balmer received 71.5% of the vote to Pounds' 28.1%. Balmer was appointed in 2001 by Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) and was re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2014.
  • In Oregon, candidates in nonpartisan primaries can win an election outright if they receive over 50% of the vote in the primary. Two other incumbent state Supreme Court justices—Chris Garrett and Martha L. Walters—won re-election unopposed.
• Jo Rae Perkins won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, defeating three other candidates. With an estimated 69% of ballots tallied, Perkins received 49% of the vote, followed by Paul Romero with 30.7%, Robert Schwartz with 11.5%, and John Verbeek with 8.3%. Perkins advances to the general election on Nov. 3 against incumbent U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D). Merkley was unopposed in the Democratic primary.
• State Senator Cliff Bentz defeated 10 other candidates to win the Republican nomination to Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District in the eastern part of the state. With an estimated 82% of ballots counted, Bentz received 30.6% of the vote and former State Rep. Knute Buehler was second with 22.4%. Incumbent Greg Walden (R) is not running for re-election. 
  • As of late Wednesday, media outlets had not yet called the winner of the five-candidate Democratic primary. All three major race rating outlets view the general election as Safe/Solid Republican.
• The winner of the Democratic primary for Oregon’s Secretary of State has not yet been determined. As of Wednesday afternoon, State Senator Mark Hass led with 36.0 % of the vote and State Senator Shemia Fagan was second with 35.3%. The Democratic nominee faces State Senator Kim Thatcher—who won the Republican primary—in November.
  
  Incumbent Bev Clarno (R), who was appointed to the office following Dennis Richardson’s (R) death in February 2019, did not seek re-election. Oregon has no lieutenant governor and the secretary of state is first in the line of succession to the governorship.

Local Roundup

Here’s our weekly roundup of local election news:

Portland, Oregon

Voters in Portland cast ballots in the city’s mayoral election Tuesday and it has not been determined whether a runoff will be necessary in November. As of Wednesday afternoon, incumbent Ted Wheeler was leading the 19-candidate field with 51.5% of the vote and Sarah Iannarone was second with 22.5%. If no candidate receives a majority in the primary, voters will decide between the top two finishers in the November 3 general election. Both candidates also ran for mayor in 2016 when Wheeler won his first term. While municipal elections in Portland are officially nonpartisan, Wheeler was elected state treasurer as a Democrat.

Massachusetts State Senate special elections

Democratic candidates in two Massachusetts State Senate districts won special elections May 19, flipping partisan control in both instances. Susan Moran (D) defeated James McMahon (R), 55% to 45%, in the Plymouth and Barnstable District and John Velis (D) defeated John Cain (R), 64% to 36%, in the 2nd Hampden and Hampshire District. Both vacancies resulted when the Republican incumbents resigned to take other jobs.

After Moran and Velis take office, the partisan balance of the Massachusetts Senate will be 36 Democrats and four Republicans. So far in 2020, four seats nationwide have flipped partisan control in state legislative special elections. Three seats went from Republican to Democratic control and one seat flipped from Democratic to Republican control.

The Massachusetts special elections were originally scheduled for March 31 and were postponed to May 19 due to the coronavirus outbreak. Voters decided primary elections for these seats on March 3. Below is the breakdown of the total votes cast in the March 3 primaries as compared with this week’s special elections:

Portland ballot measures

Voters in the Portland Metro area approved a measure authorizing a 1% tax on certain levels of household, individual, and business income to fund homeless services. The tax would take effect in 2021 and expire in 2030. Metro officials estimated the combined revenue of the income and business taxes to be $248 million per year. Vote totals available as of Wednesday afternoon showed voters approving the measure, 63% to 37%.

Portland voters also approved a measure authorizing the renewal of the city's gas tax for four years at a rate of $0.10 per gallon. Revenues would be dedicated to infrastructure repairs. City officials estimated the gas tax would raise $74.5 million over four years. The $0.10 gas tax was first approved in 2016. Vote totals available as of Wednesday afternoon showed voters approving the measure by a vote of 77% to 23%.

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