With Oregon's double majority requirement for ballot measures, you might want to know that NOT VOTING might make a bigger impact than voting "No" for a given measure. Do you understand how this works?

Oregon law requires that at least half of registered voters turn out in order to pass any given ballot measure. Consequently, the following scenario might be helpful:

Let's say, for ease of understanding, that there are 100 registered voters in Oregon. In order for any ballot measure to pass, at least 50 of those registered voters need to turn out at the polls (or, at the mail box) for a measure to pass. So, in our illustration, 50 people need to turn out at an election for a measure to pass. Let's say that only 26 people turn out to vote YES on a measure, and 23 people turn out to vote NO. That makes only 49 voters that voted, and since 100 are registered, the measure will FAIL, even though the majority of those who DID vote, voted YES. You gotta have at least 50 people turning out to vote for it to pass.

Okay, now let's say that you are vehemently opposed to the given measure and you march down to the polls on voting day (or the mail box a few days prior) and cast your NO vote. Now, the scenario has changed. Now, 26 people have voted YES and 24 people have voted NO. NOW the total turnout is 50 out of the 100 registered voters, and consequently, because YOU cast your (NO) vote, the measure will PASS precisely because YOUR vote turned the tables to make it a 50% voter turnout. Your NO vote was the swing vote in making the measure PASS.

Sounds frustrating, doesn't it.