4 signs of election disruptions ahead

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

#1. Mail meltdown predicted: Election officials are warning of persistent problems with mail service during elections.  OPB reports,“In an alarming letter, the officials said that over the past year, including the just-concluded primary season, mailed ballots that were postmarked on time were received by local election offices days after the deadline to be counted. They also noted that properly addressed election mail was being returned to them as undeliverable, a problem that could automatically send voters to inactive status through no fault of their own, potentially creating chaos when those voters show up to cast a ballot.”

The articles continues to describe the U.S. Postal Service failing to fix these problems year after year.

#2. Portland has a double trouble problem. Portland decided to implement two different election systems at the same time. First, Portland has expanded their City Commissioners from 4 to 12 and is moving to a multi-regional system where multiple candidates will run under regional areas (instead of traditional proportional or at-large districts). At the very same time, Portland is implementing the highly controversial and confusing rank-choice voting. That is two very unique and new election systems in the same year.

#3. Election threats. The FBI is warning of election threats to our system, including cyber attacks. Also, some Leftists have previously made threats of disruptions to Oregon election offices.  Here is a letter they sent.

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As a result of these threats, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden this summer called for greater protection of our election workers.

#4. Mistakes already in 2024.  There have been some high-profile election mistakes already occurring in Oregon this year alone.     Multnomah County Elections had 9,000 incorrect ballots that were sent out and had to be reprinted.  Deschutes County Elections had errors in their mailing envelopes.  In Crook County the election office inadvertently omitted 2 ballot measure arguments for Measure 7-86 which is the greater Idaho Measure. Lawmakers complained of postal delays of ballots to election offices in Douglas and Lincoln counties.  The Oregon State Election website has been crashing.

One of the likely reasons contributing to these errors is because state and local governments face staffing shortages (Oregon among the worst) and high turnover — which is why a half dozen DMV offices were closed for the summer and why the Business division of the Secretary of State has been closed on Fridays.   Also, politicians pass laws that make elections more complicated which only contribute to more errors.

If Oregonians value honest error-free elections we need to open up about the problems occurring and the signs of upcoming problems ahead.

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