Schools Recycle Over 61,000 Old Voter Registration Cards

Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - Secretary of State Bill Bradbury today announced that 25 schools in nine counties participated in the old voter registration card recycling program.

Over 61,000 old voter registration cards were collected and recycled by Oregon public schools. Each school that participated will receive a base payment of $25, plus one penny for every old registration card collected.

"I'm proud to partner with Oregon schools to provide them with a few extra dollars and to ensure that people registering to vote use the new form that meets all the federal requirements," said Bradbury.

The old voter registration card recycling program followed the release of new voter registration cards at the beginning of this year.

The new cards, which are used to register to vote or to change a person's party affiliation, name or address, include a space for the registrant to fill in either their Oregon drivers license number or the last four digits of their social security number. These identification numbers are now required by federal law.

If a registrant does not have either a driver's license or a social security number, they may still register to vote by providing a copy of other forms of identification.

In order to keep the old voter registration cards out of circulation, the Secretary of State offered to pay each Oregon public K-12 school for every old voter registration card it collected. Each school will receive at least $25 for their efforts, plus one penny for every old card collected, paid for by federal Help America Vote Act funds and not state funds.