The final numbers are in: More voters are registered for the Nov. 4 general election than in any other nonpresidential election in Oregon history. Now it’s a question of who will turn out.

In the two weeks leading to the Oct. 14 voter registration deadline, Democrats added more voters than Republicans. There are 832,814 Democrats eligible to vote this year versus 658,107 Republicans.

The state also has more voters registered to neither major party than it has in its history.

Third-party and unaffiliated voters are a key statistic for this election, as a ballot measure seeks to create a primary system that is open to all voters. The election format proposed in Measure 90, in place in Washington state and California, would create a nonpartisan, top-two primary.

The top-two primary would be open to all voters, and the two candidates with the most votes would move to the general election, regardless of party.

That would open the primary election to the 32 percent of voters who don’t register with the Republican and Democratic parties in Oregon.

Opponents of the measure, consisting largely of the two major parties but also several of the smaller minor parties, say Measure 90 would hurt voter turnout.

The final numbers — 2,196,930 people are registered to vote in the November election — also reflect the first year that Oregon was part of an electronic system that allowed the state to remind people who were eligible to register.

That system, the Electronic Registration Information Center, is seen as a way to cross-check voter information among state agencies to clean up the rolls.

About 120,000 more people are able to vote in this midterm election compared with the one in 2010.

— Reporter: 406-589-4347,

tanderson@bendbulletin.com