The Lane County Elections Office is installing three new traditional ballot drop boxes and testing a new “smart” ballot drop box ahead of the November 3, 2026 election.
“Expanding access to convenient and secure ballot drop boxes is one of our longstanding goals at Lane County Elections,” said County Clerk Tommy Gong. “Most voters in Lane County choose to use an official drop box to return their ballots and we want to continue building our network of locations as our communities grow and change.”
The new ballot boxes are being funded with a combination of the emergency funding approved in September by the Joint Emergency Board of the Oregon Legislature and provided to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office for distribution and grant funding.
“This is a major win for Lane County voters. I want to thank Clerk Gong and his team for their tireless work to get these drop boxes placed during an election. Expanding access to these secure, official drop boxes will make it easier for more eligible Oregonians to vote in this year’s election. That’s good for democracy and good for Oregon,” said Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read.
Site preparation is scheduled for this week with installation planned on October 14. All 25 Lane County ballot drop boxes will open to accept ballots on October 15 – the day ballots are mailed to Lane County voters.
The three new traditional ballot boxes will be located at:
- River Road Water & Fire Protection District (105 Oakleigh Lane, Eugene)
- Mapleton Fire District (10940 OR-36, Mapleton)
- McKenzie Fire & Rescue (42870 McKenzie Highway in Leaburg)
The new smart ballot drop box is the first of its kind in Oregon. It is able to scan the barcode on the outside of each return envelope to better track ballots returned at that location – increasing ballot security.
“We’re excited to be the first jurisdiction in Oregon to test this new technology,” said Gong. “One of the most compelling features is its ability to keep track of whose ballots were returned at that location, which in turn improves our chain-of-custody process for ballots and makes it possible or us to communicate with voters if something were to happen to the box and its contents before ballots had been collected by election workers.”
The smart ballot drop box will be located on the ground floor of the Lane County Public Service Building (125 E. 8th Avenue, Eugene). If the test is successful, the box will be moved to a different location before the next election.
The new ballot boxes will not appear on the list of official ballot drop boxes that accompany each ballot because the locations were confirmed too late in the ballot preparation process.
Ballots will be mailed to Lane County voters starting October 15. All returned ballots must be in drop boxes or postmarked by 8:00 p.m. on November 3. In response to service changes at the U.S. Postal Service delaying postmarking and delivery times for all mail, including ballots, voters are encouraged to use an official drop box or mail their ballots no later than October 27.
More information about the November 3, 2026 General Election, including election security, is available at www.LaneCountyOR.gov/elections.