Secretary of State Shemia Fagan says Oregon’s election system is about as air-tight as it can be, but that new rules may delay results, especially for close elections in the May 17 primary.
Fagan, who has launched a major public information campaign of television, radio and digital ads to explain the rule changes to Oregon voters in hopes of heading off complaints and misunderstandings, met with reporters last week to discuss the changes.
Slightly hoarse after recovering from a bout of COVID, she said that the biggest change will be the new postmark rule, approved by the Legislature last year, which requires any ballot with a postmark of May 17 or before to be counted through May 24.
“Oregonians should expect that the number of ballots received in a county may increase slightly after an Election Day, but again, these are ballots that were cast on time, if they were cast by 8 p.m. on Election Day,” said Fagan, a former state legislator who was elected Secretary of State in 2020 and for whom this is her first statewide election.
“In close races, it may take a few days before we know the official winner because election officials will be counting all on-time and verified ballots,” she noted.
Although voter turnout only registered about 10% early last week, Fagan said she was optimistic that numbers would improve by Election Day.
“Turnout is generally high in Oregon, thanks to our modern and convenient vote-by-mail. It’s some of the higher in the country,” she said. “We expect Oregonians to get their ballots in.”
As questions about election integrity have surfaced across the nation in the last two presidential elections, Fagan emphasized that Oregon’s mail-in election system is “accurate and secure.”
“From start to finish, elections officials take steps to protect the integrity of elections,” she said, noting that Oregon has multiple “built-in anti-fraud protections: accurate voter registration lists, signature verification, bar codes on every ballot, cameras recording every space where ballots are handled in county election process, and observers are welcome to watch the process.”
Post-election audits have been conducted in all 36 of Oregon’s counties for decades, which “help county elections officials verify the accuracy of the results.”
Responding to a report that primary election ballots with smudged barcodes had been mailed to voters in Clackamas County, Fagan and Deborah Scroggins, director of the Secretary of State’s Elections Division, said systems are in place to deal with such problems.
Scroggins said defective ballots are “transferred” to new, countable, ballots “under scrutiny from observers from different parties, making sure that is done correctly.”
Fagan emphasized that Oregon’s system is “decentralized,” which, she said, is one of its strengths.
“Ballots don’t flow through the Secretary of State’s Office, but through 36 independent elections offices,” she said.
“The Clackamas County error was limited to just one county. It didn’t affect elections across the state.”