BEND, Ore. – It is, of course, a total coincidence that thousands of Nov. 3 ballots began arriving in mailboxes across the area and state on the very day that a teen armed with a shotgun broke into Bend’s Silver Rail Elementary School, killing three children and a teacher, before a hero who followed him was able to end the nightmare with fatal gunshots.

Politics and elections are among the many daily rhythms and regular realities of life that most would agree become far less important during such hard, traumatic days.

Still, elections are rarely if ever delayed or canceled over such unforeseen tragedies. So ballots are flowing into county clerks’ offices, and some report more earlier voting than seen in past general elections.

Weeks ago – amid all the national focus on election fraud claims and mail-ballot criticism – Oregon and local election officials, seeking to make sure every vote counts, began urging voters to fill out and mail their ballots earlier than before, since all local mail now goes to Portland for processing, and that Election Night 8 p.m. postmark deadline waits for no one.

There’s also something of an apples-to-oranges situation, if one wants to compare early ballot returns with past elections. The many variables include presidential elections vs. non-presidential midterms, and what contested local and state races and measures share the ballot. Then there’s the fact that this is the first general election in over a century where there isn’t a statewide measure on Oregon ballots.

OPB reported that Fifth District Democrat Rep. Janelle Bynum, seeking a second term, and her Republican challenger, Deschutes County Commissioner Patti Adair, suspended their campaigns in the wake of the shooting.

As usual, the debates and forums were scheduled to be over before ballots hit the mail, so that somewhat limited the tragedy’s impacts on campaigns. Still, the traditional rising tide of political TV ads in the final weeks of campaigns appear to be airing as planned.

By Friday afternoon, nearly 490,000 ballots had been returned and accepted around the state, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Elections Division. That’s nearly 16% of the 3.1 million ballots sent to active voters.

Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison told the Bugle they had received 29,590 of the 168,816 ballots sent to eligible voters by late Friday afternoon, a return rate of just over 17.5%.

He said that's a bit higher than at this point during last midterm elections four years ago, when about 24,000 ballots had been returned, just over 15% of the total.

“However, we’re well under where we were during the presidential election two years ago, when we were at 40,000 ballots cast and 25% turnout” at this point, Dennison said.

Crook County Clerk Cheryl Seely reported an even higher ballot return, with 21.3% of the total of 21,809 ballots back in their hands. She called it a great turnout and urged Crook County voters: “Let’s keep it up!”

Jefferson County also was outpacing the overall state figure in terms of ballot returns, at nearly 17% of the nearly 18,000 ballots by Friday afternoon. County Clerk Kate Zemke said that’s a bit ahead of the 2024 and 2022 early ballot returns, but well behind the more than 31% that were turned in by this point in the 2020 presidential election.