(Portland, Oregon)
Newsflash! I'm in Portland, and it's raining! OK, so it's not a 7.9 earthquake. I know.... It rains all the time here, so why should my first visit be any different?
I usually start an election day blog by saying something like, "Polls open at 7 a.m."; but things here in Oregon are very different. People have been voting for weeks. Oregon has the only 100 percent mail-in elections in the nation, though the trend is likely to spread. Neighboring Washington State plans to do the same. By 8 a.m., 40 percent of Oregonians had already cast their ballots, according to the Secretary of State. He believes that, when all is said and done, 60 percent of state voters will cast ballots by 8 p.m.; and that would be a record.
This is fascinating, because it's not really just "mail-in" voting. It's more like "drive-through" voting. People pull up to metal boxes along certain streets and slide their ballots into the election box, just as they would with mail. There is even a voting "box" at a McDonald's drive-through. But turnout is greater, as is efficiency, so expect more states to join this trend.
There are very few traditional polling places left in Oregon. The only one I found was actually at the Multnomah County Elections office in Portland, where people could drop in to vote. 
We should note: This is not just the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Thirteen people are vying for Mayor of Portland, and there is a flurry of candidates running for State and Congressional offices. Election fever, as it were!
Confession time: I showed up in one of the world's rainiest cities with no raincoat and no umbrella. But, thanks to the kindness of convenience store clerk Jagdish Singh, I stayed relatively dry. Singh lent me her umbrella to use during my broadcast to KTVU. She's an interesting woman. She holds both U.S. and Canadian citizenship, but chose not to vote in this election. "I just feel guilty if I choose the wrong person," Singh said. "I don't like the three of them anyway. They are not too strong for running for the President." Singh was born in India, but came to the U.S. twenty-five years ago.
And it was kind of like "old home" week here. I was assisted in my broadcast by Mark Glyzewski, a reporter from KPTV-Fox 12 in Portland. It turns out both Mark and I grew up in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Small world! Watch for updates throughout the day. I will be "live" at 7:45 Wednesday morning with Ross McGowan on KTVU's "Mornings on Two." We'll have a complete wrap-up of the Oregon and Kentucky primaries.
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