PORTLAND, Ore. — There were no big surprises in Oregon's presidential primary races on Tuesday, with Joe Biden, the incumbent president, and his Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, both emerging victorious.
As of Wednesday morning, Biden has received 297,783 votes, or 88% of the Democratic vote in Oregon. The only other person listed on the ballot for that race, Marianne Williamson, received 23,639 votes, or 7% of the vote. In addition, 16,508 write-in votes were cast, for 5% of the vote. In other states, voters have voted for "uncommitted" over Biden as a protest against the president's management of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
On the Republican side, Trump has received 236,415 votes, or 92% of the Republican vote in the state, as of Wednesday morning. There were 20,501 write-in votes cast, for 8% of the vote.
The write-in totals this year are higher than in the past two primary elections in presidential campaign years. In 2020, "miscellaneous" votes got 2.1% of the votes on the Democratic side and 6.2% on the Republican side, and in 2016, it was 1.7% for Democrats and 3.3% for Republicans.
What is unknown is how many of the write-in votes were for "uncommitted." In Oregon, state law (ORS 254.500) prohibits voting officials from releasing a tally of who or what people vote for when they cast a write-in vote.
"Oregon law directs counties to tally write in votes only if the number is high enough to impact the election. For example, (if) a candidate gets 49% of the votes and 51% are write ins," said Ben Morris, a spokesperson for the Oregon Secretary of State's Office. "This threshold was not met in either presidential primary contest."
So while it's not known how many of the nearly 40,000 write-in votes were for "uncommitted," it stands to reason that a significant number of them may have been, considering precedent in other state's primary elections as well as the fact that groups were encouraging people to write in "uncommitted" in Oregon's primary.
More than 100,000 voters (about 13%) voted for "uncommitted" on their ballots in Michigan in February, and approximately 263,000 combined voters did the same in five states on Super Tuesday. Minnesota saw about 20% of the Democratic vote go to "uncommitted," according to the Associated Press. Closer to home, in March, nearly 90,000 people (9.8% of the vote) chose "uncommitted" in Washington state's Democratic presidential primary.
On Tuesday night, nearly 33,000 voters, or 17.9%, voted "uncommitted" over Biden in Kentucky's Democratic primary, with another 11% voting for Williamson or Dean Phillips.
More than 35,000 people have been killed during the conflict in Gaza since it began Oct. 7, when Hamas launched an attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. Critics of Biden's handling of the conflict have said they want the president to call for an immediate ceasefire, stop funding Israel's offensive in Gaza and provide humanitarian aid to the region.
The Associated Press reports that the "uncommitted" vote isn't a new development. In 2012, more than 400,000 people cast their ballots as "uncommitted" or "no preference" to protest the reelection of President Barack Obama.
The movement hasn't jeopardized Biden's standing as the Democratic nominee. The incumbent has won all the state primaries and clinched the nomination in March.
The November general election is Nov. 5.
