Opinion: Partisan Politicians Create Election Confusion

There are genuine concerns about election integrity in Oregon. Vote by Mail has come under fire as we head towards the November election. “Ballot harvesting” and worries about electronic voting machines have dominated the list. It’s important to understand Oregon’s election system when trying to separate facts from rumors.

29 States rely on online voting systems that use on-line terminals (voting machines) connected on-line. The ballots are usually processed, out of state. In Oregon each County is responsible for conducting their own elections. The ballots are scanned on-site. The results are submitted directly to the Secretary of State and posted on the individual county websites.

So what happened in Clackamas County?

After testing a sample ballot, the County received a large shipment from Moonlight Printing, located in Bend. Most of the ballots had unreadable bar codes used for sorting purposes. The culprit was the use of incorrect paper by Moonlight Printing when faced with a shortage. Many are blaming the County Clerk, Sherry Hall, but the responsibility is on the printing company, which undoubtedly has lost the County’s business forever. Officials blaming Sherry Hall have familiar names, including County Commissioner Sonya Fischer who can’t seem to remember she holds a non-partisan office, and her political ally, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan. Given the history of security breaches and a recent cyber-attack on the Secretary’s website, Fagan should be focusing there.

Some ask why Hall didn’t hire more workers when the problem surfaced? Unfortunately, the initial results indicated that less than 5% of the ballots were affected. At the time there was no budget for hiring workers and training them. The Elections Division increased its staff and completed reproduction of over 110,000 ballots prior to the June 13th deadline. While the delay was unfortunate, all ballots were counted in front of witnesses. While issues exist with the current vote by mail system, the ballot tallying was not tainted or affected by conditions outside of the County. A routine audit will be performed.
Les Poole Clackamas County