As Oregonians turn in their ballots Tuesday, the state’s top elections and legal officers are reasserting confidence in the state’s election system.
Oregon’s elections are safe and secure despite the Trump administration’s attempts to obtain personal voter data from the state, as well as cuts to the U.S. Postal Service andthefederal agency charged with protecting elections from cyber or foreign interference, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read and Attorney General Dan Rayfield told reporters at a noon press conference Tuesday.
“We already have strong physical security and operational measures in place, and where the federal government is stepping back, Oregon is stepping up,” Read said.
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Voter fraud in Oregon is incredibly rare, and it’s a crime, Read said. Anyone who lies about their identity when registering to vote is investigated and every violation is prosecuted, he said.
Additionally, the machines used to count ballots are never connected to the internet, making it nearly impossible to hack, he said.
Oregon has 321 dropboxes where Oregonians can drop off their ballots until 8 p.m. All of them are monitored and equipped with fire suppression technology. Election officials also work closely with law enforcement and emergency response partners to protect voters and their ballots.
And if anything happens to a ballot in the mail or drop box, county clerks can act quickly to identify and assist affected voters because each ballot has a unique barcode and papertrail, Read said.
The state is also partnering with its terrorist prevention agency, the Oregon Titan Fusion Center, as well as the Oregon Military to Department to protect Oregonians from any threats or attacks.
The state’s election security and safety efforts will continue into the November election, Rayfield said.
“It’s not enough to be reactive, we have to sit there and look forward and anticipate what challenges may come, and we need to be ready for them because elections matter,” Rayfield said.
As of Tuesday morning,nearly 26%of registered voters had turned in their ballots, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Elections Division. That’s 800,500 voters out of 3.1 million who are registered.
That’s a near-record pace, Read said — at the same point in the past two gubernatorial primaries, turnout sat at 22% and 23%. Past elections have shown surges in ballots returned the final day of the election, as well as postmarked ballots cast before Election Day that arrive in the following days.
Read credited the convenience of Oregon’s mail voting system for the high turnout.
“That means that more people are making sure that power answers to them, not the other way around, and that I think is probably why Oregon has become a target for the Trump administration,” he said.
The Oregon Secretary of State’s Office will regularly update its website as election results from counties come in. Those numbers are unofficial until the state certifies those results on June 25, though candidates will declare victory and news organizations will call races before then based on election data and statistical analysis.
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