Most anti-Donald Trump protesters arrested in Portland didn't vote in Oregon: Report

Impact

During Hillary Clinton's hard-fought battle against Donald Trump for the White House, President Barack Obama made a simple plea: "Don't boo — vote."

Some of the protesters arrested in Portland, Oregon, for demonstrating against Trump since he became president-elect apparently didn't get the memo.

Portland's NBC affiliate, KGW, did the math, reporting on Tuesday that the station had "compiled a list of the 112 people arrested by the Portland Police Bureau during recent protests. Those names and ages, provided by police, were then compared to state voter logs by Multnomah County Elections officials."

The upshot: Of those taken into custody, KGW found that 39 were registered to vote in Oregon but didn't submit a ballot. Another 33 did vote, while 36 weren't registered in the state and four were not of legal voting age.

"It is unclear if those who aren't registered in Oregon are registered to vote in other states," KGW reported. "Most of those gave Oregon addresses as their official residence in court records."

Not all votes have yet been counted in the presidential contest, which has Clinton winning the popular vote but Trump victorious in the Electoral College

However, the Washington Post reported Tuesday that, although the number of ballots cast will be greater in 2016 than in 2012, the percentage of eligible voters who turned out may actually end up around 58%, slightly down from 2012 and markedly below 2008's turnout.

Ironically, Oregon, where residents vote entirely by mail and are enrolled through a motor voter program, reported a much higher turnout percentage than the nation overall.

Portland numbers among the many American cities, including Trump's native New York City, which have seen large demonstrations against the president-elect after his upset defeat of Clinton on Nov. 8.

While many of the demonstrations have been peaceful marches against what participants have called Trump's racist and misogynistic rhetoric, others have devolved into violence, as they did in Portland.

Ankur Dholakia/Getty Images

"Protesters blocked the streets, throwing bottles and other projectiles at officers and attacking a news crew," USA Today reported of the Portland protest. "Some dragged metal barricades onto MAX train tracks, prompting transit officials to urge people to avoid traveling downtown," 

Demonstrations against Trump have developed across the country, drawing thousands into the streets of Boston, Washington, D.C., and Orlando, Florida, where creativity seemed to trump chaos. In Oakland, California, however, protesters torched garbage bins and vandalized a bank.