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Oregon voter Aaron Hubbard drops off a ballot in 2014 with help from his daughter, Ashlee.

(AP Photo/Don Ryan)

Oregon voter turnout reached 41 percent by Friday morning, putting the state on track to see 80 percent of registered voters cast ballots in this fall's general election.

If turnout surges that high, it would nudge the state's electorate just past 2 million votes cast in the bruising battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, swamping the previous record of 1.84 million votes cast in the 2008 Obama-McCain election.

But the final five days of balloting may not deliver that kind of volume. Final turnout will depend largely on how motivated Oregon voters who are not registered as Democrats or Republicans -- and who make up fully one-third of registered voters -- are to fill out and turn in ballots by Tuesday's 8 p.m. deadline.

The state's most expensive battle ever waged over a ballot measure, the white-hot contest over the $3 billion a year Measure 97 corporate tax, could help drive up interest, along with a governor's race and an usually close contest for secretary of state. Local measures, from marijuana bans and a light rail prohibition to county commission races and big school bonds, could make the difference in many communities.

For now, the turnout rate is almost precisely the same as this point in the 2012 election cycle and 2 percentage points lower than in the 2008 presidential contest during which President Obama held two massive rallies in Portland and set much of left-leaning Oregon on fire.

Oregon voter turnout ultimately reached 81 percent in 2012 and 84 percent in 2014. The fact that the state's voters are nearly on track with previous turnout rates is notable because so many more voters are registered this year, due largely to the state's new "motor voter" law that automatically registered 250,000 new voters.

-- Betsy Hammond