It’s not too late to vote, but it is too late to mail ballot

By BENNETT HALL
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 12:00 am

If you're still dithering over how much postage you need to put on your ballot envelope, you can stop now - it's too late to mail it in.

But it's not too late to vote.

You have until 8 tonight to cast your ballot, and you have a couple of options for doing it.

You can vote the old-fashioned way in a polling booth at the Benton County Elections Office, in the basement of the county courthouse at 120 N.W. Fourth St.

Or you can deposit your ballot in one of the dozen drop boxes scattered around the county - in fact, any official county drop box in the state will do.

"If you're a Benton County resident and you're in Bend, you can drop it in a clerk's drop box in Bend and it will be counted," said Jill Van Buren, Benton County elections supervisor.

But don't cut things too fine, Van Buren advises. The polls close at 8 p.m. on the dot, no late ballots allowed, and any disputes about the correct time are Van Buren's call.

"What is 8 o'clock? Because each clock is a little different, we've decided that 8 o'clock is when the clock tower here on the courthouse is on 8."

Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.