Oregon state election officials want to assure everyone that election process, specifically mail-in voting, is secure.
“False information is literally the biggest threat to elections here in Oregon and across the country,” Secretary of State Shemia Fagan said Tuesday.
Fagan has announced Voting in Oregon Feels Good, a public service campaign to reach voters with accurate information before they are misled by false election information.
“We know that when people form an opinion on elections, it’s really hard to change their minds, even with accurate information,” Fagan said. We want to get to Oregonians before they have heard these lies that are based on the Big Lie and conspiracy theories.”
Deschutes County Clerk Steve Dennison agrees with Fagan.
“Our elections by all accounts are even more secure than ever,” Dennison said. “We have multiple checks and balances to ensure that every registered voter is receiving a ballot. When those ballots are returned, we verify signatures on every envelope.”
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Central Oregon Daily asked voters on the street if they had any concerns with the election process.
“I have no concerns about election fraud or election security. I think it’s all straight up forward,” one voter said. “Never seen a problem in the past. I have full confidence in our voting system.”
“I do think it’s a safe process,” another voter said. “I usually deliver mine to a drop box, but i think the mail is also safe.”
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Ross Harden says he’s not concerned about rigging, but that the process has issues.
“I wouldn’t say that I feel like it’s rigged, but it is set up in a way that there’s problems,” Harden said. “Things get lost in the mail all the time. How many times have you mailed a letter or mailed a package and it never showed up?”
He later gave his idea of a possible solution.
“Making it all digital,” he said. “If it’s digital then there’s no chance it gets lost. It happens immediately. But software and algorithms run the way they’re supposed to run period, so I think digitizing it would make it run a lot better.”
Election day is Nov. 8
