SALEM – Oregon voters won’t have to put a stamp on their ballot when they mail it back to elections officials, under a bill approved during the closing hours of the 2019 legislative session.

Senate Bill 861 now heads to Gov. Kate Brown, who has expressed strong support for the proposal.

Under the measure, ballot return envelopes would include pre-paid postage in the form of a “business reply mail” envelope. It means the ballots can be mailed from anywhere in the United States without needing a stamp. The U.S. Postal Service collects the money from the addressee, in this case county election offices, after it delivers a business reply envelope.

It’s a big win for progressive advocacy groups including the Bus Project. “Voting will finally be free in Oregon, with every single mailbox becoming a drop box,” the group tweeted.

Since vote-by-mail became the standard mechanism for voting in Oregon in 1998, voters have been able to drop their ballot off at no charge in drop boxes located in many communities around the state.

The bill passed mostly along party lines, with Democrats in favor. One aisle-crossing opponent was Rep. Jeff Reardon, D-Happy Valley.

"I can’t get my head around the necessity of doing this,” he said. “Stamps are pretty readily available.”

The bill will take effect in January 2020. The first election it applies to could be a special election that month if opponents to the new $1 billion-a-year business tax for education are successful in gathering enough signatures to force a vote on the measure.