Residents press county on voter registration, mail-ballot security and observation; elections debrief set for work session

Several Washington County residents raised election-security concerns during the Jan. 21 public comment periods, urging the Board of Commissioners to address voter registration practices, vote-by-mail chain-of-custody, observation access and ballot counting methods. The county had scheduled an election debrief work session the same day; county staff said the work session would be open for public attendance but not public comment.

Public comment highlights - Jill Brand (resident) said the county elections office would debrief the board on the Nov. 2024 general election during a work session that members of the public may attend but not speak at; Brand urged the commission to hold the requested public work session that residents have sought for four months and said community data “overwhelmingly demonstrates fundamental problems with Washington County elections.” - Sandra Nelson (resident, 40-year county resident) cited a Secretary of State administrative order (Oct. 23, 2024) listing agencies authorized to register voters and emphasized that under ORS 247.128 a registration card that is legible, accurate and complete must be accepted; Nelson said the Oregon DMV had reported registering 62,949 individuals of “unknown citizenship status” from Jan. 1, 2021 to Oct. 18, 2024 and asked how many such registrations are in Washington County, and whether unqualified registrants could have affected recent elections. - Roger W. Law (resident, 42-year county resident) urged the county to adopt publicly observable hand counting of paper ballots, describing hand-count audit procedures and arguing that other democracies and some U.S. jurisdictions use hand counts to build confidence. He said hand counts are more transparent than computerized vote counting and noted public distrust in election honesty reported in polls. - Mary Helcioppalos (resident, 23-year county resident) said there is “no such thing as a secure vote-by-mail system” once ballots leave the county, cited examples of missing ballots in other Oregon counties and requested that the elections director report how many Washington County voters did not receive mailed ballots. She urged adoption of Election Assistance Commission (EAC) chain-of-custody best practices and requested daily accounting of ballots received. - Karen Schmidlin (resident, election observer and trainer, 40+ years in county) described limitations on meaningful in-person observation of ballot processing in November 2024, saying observers were restricted to a remote observation room with poor camera quality, blind spots, no audio, and limited access to signature files and adjudication workstations; she said observers were denied in-person observation requests and were told to use public records requests after certification. - Jill Latray and Bob Terry reiterated requests for work sessions and demonstrations of alternative counting methods and said their groups will continue to press for changes.

Board and staff response Clerk Moss and Chair Harrington confirmed that the elections office will present the debrief during a work session later in the day; the chair noted the work session is constructed so interested members of the public can stay to observe but clarified the work session is not a forum for public comment. Later in the meeting, the board asked County Administrator Angie to have staff report back on the comments and questions voiced over recent months.

Authorities and technical references raised by commenters - Secretary of State: permanent administrative order dated Oct. 23, 2024 (agencies authorized to register voters) — cited by Sandra Nelson. - Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 247.128 (registration card acceptance and alteration rules) — cited by Sandra Nelson. - Election Assistance Commission (EAC) best practice guidance on mail-ballot chain-of-custody and record-keeping — cited by Mary Helcioppalos.

Clarifying details and limits of the meeting record Speakers cited DMV data that 62,949 registrations of “unknown citizenship status” occurred statewide in the cited period; how many of those are registered in Washington County and whether any were used to cast ballots in county elections was not specified in the public comment record and was not answered at the meeting. Observers described scope and limitations of November 2024 observation (monitor-only observer room, rotating camera views, blind spots, no audio). Several speakers asked the elections director for specific reports (daily ballot accounting, counts by drop site and date); the transcript does not contain the elections director’s responses to those specific data requests.

Ending The board scheduled and proceeded to the election debrief work session later in the day; board staff were asked to report back on the public concerns raised.