Bitch, bitch, bitch — then sit on your hands.
For the past two years we’ve watched Portland-area activists moan and groan about everything under the sun.
Rampant homelessness. Failing public schools. Economic stagnation. City Council infighting. Slimmed down budgets. Drugs everywhere. Shooting deaths. Immigration raids. housing affordability struggles. Commercial property value plunges. Job Growth Lags. Tax revolts. You name it.
But get off their butts and vote for change? Fugettabout it!!!
As of Nov. 5, 2026, here’s voter turn-out of active registered voters by county in the Portland Metro Area, as provided by the Oregon Elections Office:
Yamhill County: 64.52%. Clackamas County: 66.49% Multnomah County: 62.44% Washington county: 59.42%
That may not look so bad, but it reveals that 525,444, or more than half a million, of the active registered voters in these four counties didn’t even bother to get off their couches and vote.
But before all you folks in ghe rest of the state celebrate following your civic duty, even though some counties far exceeded the Portland Metro Area in voting participation (Benton, Sherman and Wheeler Counties all exceeded 70%) , a lot of you didn’t leap into into action either. Here are the percentages of active registered voters who voted outside the Portland Metro Area, according to the Oregon Elections Office. The worst? Marion County, home of our state capitol, at 42.30%.
| Baker: 64.71% | |
| Benton: 71.03% | |
| Clackamas: 66.49% | |
| Clatsop: 63.94% | |
| Columbia: 62.64% | |
| Coos: 59.98% | |
| Crook: 64.53% | |
| Curry: 62.89% | |
| Deschutes: 65.31% | |
| Douglas: 57.84% | |
| Gilliam: 69.54% | |
| Grant: 68.26% | |
| Harney: 66.92% | |
| Hood River: 67.30% | |
| Jackson: 62.09% | |
| Jefferson: 57.84% | |
| Josephine: 57.03% | |
| Klamath: 57.15% | |
| Lake: 63.76% | |
| Lane: 65.42% | |
| Lincoln: 64.11% | |
| Linn: 61.81% | |
| Malheur: 48.91% | |
| Marion: 42.30% | |
| Morrrow: 54.49% | |
| Polk: 58.72% | |
| Sherman: 71.14% | |
| Tillamook: 66.78% | |
| Umatilla: 50.21% | |
| Union: 64.74% | |
| Wallowa: 72.41% | |
| Wasco: 56.56% | |
| Wheeler: 74.01% | |
“If people don’t vote, everything stays the same,” said Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers union. “You can protest until the sky turns yellow, or the moon turns blue, and it’s not going to change anything if you don’t vote.”
