When you think about Yamhill County, do you consider it a ‘red’ county?  It’s true, the county did go red in the 2016 election… but did you know that Trump received only 48% of the vote, compared to Clinton’s 40%?  Would you be surprised to learn that the third highest response by registered voters was… not voting at all!  It’s true:  21% (13,000) of Registered Voters in Yamhill County did not return ballots in 2016.     The gap between Trump and Clinton’s votes?  Just 4,000 votes.

Yamhill County is currently divided into 21 precincts.  The largest of these precincts is 003 – Newberg City Wards 4&5, with 5,211 registered voters, and the smallest is 027 – Willamina City & Rural, at just 803 voters in May of 2018.

In 2016, of the 21 precincts, Trump had a majority of votes in most precincts (17), while Clinton had the majority in 4.  In one precinct (019 – McMinnville Ward 3) in McMinnville, more voters failed to return ballots than voted for Trump!

As of May, 2017, numbers of registered Republican, Democrat, and Non-Aligned voters were very close in totals at 21,300, 18,900, and 18,800 respectively.  The chart below shows these three by age group – notice that Non-Affiliated voters are by far younger… this fact is likely influenced but not entirely due to Oregon’s Motor Voter law, which automatically registered voters during DMV transactions (the law only went into effect in 2015, while the largest age group of NAV are 25-35).  Note that Non-Aligned voters are not the same as “Independent” voters, which in Oregon refers only to voters enrolled with the Independent Party of Oregon.

[all data in this post was taken from Nov. 2016 and May 2017 voter rolls, courtesy of the Yamhill County Clerk’s office]

-Megan Corvus