New Secretary of State outlines priorities: ORVIS, audits, records modernization and election controls

Tobias Reid, Oregon's newly sworn Secretary of State, told the House Committee on Rules on Feb. 10 that his office will prioritize integrity, accountability and competence across archives, audits, corporations and elections, and that early work has identified information-technology capacity and program continuity as near-term challenges.

"We need to be operating with integrity, accountability, and competence," Secretary Tobias Reid said, adding that the office is responsible for functions ranging from voter registration and elections to business filings and audits.

Reid said the office is concentrating on several projects: the Oregon Registered Voter Information System (ORVIS) modernization; implementation of House Bill 4024 (the campaign finance reform package passed by the legislature); strengthening controls around automatic voter registration; digitization and preservation of archival materials (including degrading audio cassette records); and consolidating multiple legacy systems in the corporation division.

Audits: The secretary described steps to revise audit planning. He introduced Steve Bergman as the new audits director and said the office is developing a more data-driven, transparent methodology for choosing audits with the goal of reducing bias and improving the return on scarce audit resources. Reid and Deputy Secretary Michael Kaplan emphasized the office will work with the legislature to publicize findings and track follow-up.

Elections and ORVIS: Reid introduced Dina Dawson as the new elections director (recently arrived from Lane County) and said the administration is increasing scrutiny of vendors and working closely with county clerks on ORVIS and on implementing HB 4024 on the timetable required by the statute. He said the office is also adding controls to the automatic voter registration process to detect and address errors.

Records and corporations: Reid noted there are roughly 4 million corporation-division records still on microfiche/microfilm and said the division is modernizing systems used for business registrations, notaries, liens and small-business assistance. The archives division has begun transferring aging audio-cassette records to more stable platforms.

Operational challenges and staffing: Reid cited turnover in the office and pandemic-era workforce changes as complicating long-term planning. He said information-technology capacity is critical for ORVIS and campaign-finance implementation and that the office is seeking better vendor accountability.

Questions and follow-up: Committee members pressed for specifics on audits follow-up, DMV record retention practices for automatic voter registration, whether state employees who appear before the legislature are registered as lobbyists, and whether the Secretary of State has the information needed to ensure voter-roll accuracy. Reid said the office would provide follow-up and more specific information to the committee and welcomed further questions and coordination.

Ending: Reid said the office will return to the committee with the elections and audits divisions once new managers have had time in their roles and pledged to provide written follow-up on requested items, including audit histories and DMV/automatic-registration controls.