As Trump questions election security, Oregon official defends voting system

After President Donald Trump questioned election security in a primetime speech last week, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read made his case Monday for what Oregonians should anticipate this fall and why they should trust the state’s voting system he oversees.

Read and members of his staff said they consider it important to share and reshare boilerplate on how elections are run in Oregon, given that the electorate is bombarded by misinformation, whether in presidential speeches or social media claims.

Here are some key facts Oregon’s top election official wants state voters to know:

Federal court decisions have continued to protect key aspects of Oregon elections

Oregon voters’ private data, such as their Social Security numbers and dates of birth, are safe and secure, at least for now. Oregon was the first of 15 states to win a federal court battle to rebuff the Trump administration’s request for such information about all the state’s voters.

The Trump administration appealed that decision to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That decision is pending.

Oregon elections have checks and balances

Oregonians cast paper ballots, and the legitimacy of every ballot is checked by comparing the voter signature on the ballot return envelope to that on the person’s voter registration card or DMV form. Signatures that don’t pass a “forensic” test aren’t counted unless the voter provides a legitimate updated signature, Read said.

Oregon was the first state in the country to rely entirely on mail voting. Although the Oregon DMV caused more than 1,200 non-citizens to be registered to vote from 2021 to 2024, fewer than 10 of those people cast a ballot while unqualified to vote, state officials said. The fault in the registration process has since been corrected, they said.

Some features of Oregon elections may seem nefarious but aren’t

If a candidate or a measure isn’t included in Oregon’s official Voters’ Pamphlet, mailed to every Oregon household, that’s because the campaign did not submit information, since providing information is optional.

The state elections office is pushing that message because it got angry calls and threats in 2024 when President Donald Trump, then a candidate for reelection, was not included in the 2024 pamphlet. That was because the campaign didn’t send any information for inclusion.

High-level officials with the U.S. Postal Service in Oregon are cooperating with the state elections office to clarify their processes and ensure that ballots are delivered expeditiously to voters and, once completed, returned to the county elections office. The fact that pieces of mail are not automatically postmarked the day they are turned in at a post office or that mail can take almost a week to reach a nearby address are not nefarious developments but a byproduct of a squeezed postal service, he said. Americans don’t send as much mail as they once did, he noted.

“I recognize the tough position they’re in. What’s in the mail, it looks different now. It’s important for people to understand that,” Read said. “If you live in a remote part of Oregon, really any place that’s more than 50 miles from Portland, even if your ballot is just going across town to the elections office, it’s going to come to Portland for processing and postmarking. And we want people to account for that.”

Trump’s threats can be misleading

Although a Trump administration official threatened to send ICE agents to polling places, Read said, no Oregon voter needs to go to a polling place to take part in an election, since ballots can be mailed or placed in official drop boxes.

Oregon citizens can easily check or update their voter registration online until Oct. 13.

Oregon elections include transparency provisions

Members of the public are welcome to observe ballot processing and counting at their county’s election office. Ballot marks that are unclear are reviewed by a panel of election workers that include voters with at least two different party affiliations.

All 36 counties count ballots in secure rooms with 24-hour video surveillance and space for election observers.

Election tallies are not complete until days or even weeks after Election Day because it takes time to check signatures, give voters whose signatures were questioned to prove the ballot and signature are in fact theirs and complete hand recounts where needed. “Our job is to get this right,” Read said.

“Our elections are secure,” Read said. “They are transparent. They are fair. They are administered by public servants who take their responsibilities seriously. The votes will be counted accurately. The results will reflect the will of Oregon voters. And in our democracy, everyone is expected to accept these lawful results, especially politicians and those with power.”

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