Residents press Washington County commissioners for answers on September ballot returns and voter rolls

Several residents urged the Washington County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 25 to investigate and publicly explain a cluster of ballots that speakers said arrived at the county elections office on Sept. 23, 2024.

Speakers including Mary Helkiopoulos, Jackie Poppin and former Commissioner Bob Terry attributed numbers to their review of county records and asked the board to commission an outside audit and to hold a work session. Their testimony cited specific counts of ballots received and accepted during a short period in late September and early October 2024 and alleged that a subset came from inactive or unregistered voter records.

"From Sept. 23 through Oct. 4, prior to out-of-state ballots being sent out, 6,114 ballots were received into the elections office, and of those 6,014 were accepted," Mary Helkiopoulos told the board, attributing those figures to her review. She said her group had identified 442 ballots on Sept. 23 that they consider "very questionable": 130 ballots from registrants listed as inactive and 312 ballots from people who do not appear on Washington County voter rolls.

Helkiopoulos provided a further breakdown of the inactive ballots: 12 from out of state, 48 from overseas, nine from military addresses, five from other Oregon counties and 56 from Washington County addresses. She said the 442 ballots received on Sept. 23 represented about 7.5% of all ballots received that day and about 7.3% of all ballots accepted through Oct. 4.

Jackie Poppin cited statements she said were made by the countys elections manager, Dan Forrester, and reminded commissioners of Oregons voter registration deadline: "October 15 is the deadline to register to vote in Oregon. Per Oregon law, one must be registered in the database 21 days before the election in order to participate," she said, and then asked how ballots from unregistered or inactive records could have been processed.

Speakers asked procedural questions about how ballots were mailed and handled, whether drop boxes were secured, whether drop-box pickups or mail processing occurred on Sept. 23, and how ballots from unregistered persons received voter ID numbers and passed signature verification checks. Several speakers urged the board to resume precinct-based in-person voting with paper ballots and to commission an external audit of the election process and expenses.

Former Commissioner Bob Terry and other speakers also asked the board to examine chain-of-custody steps, the countys relationship with offsite printing and mailing facilities in Bend, and the state-level processes that distribute ballots to counties. John Woods said he and others had tried to replicate parts of the online attestation process and expressed concern that noncitizens or overseas actors could reach late steps in the process.

County staff told the board that written responses to questions raised by the public had been prepared and would be included in the meeting packet; Clerk Aguilar was referenced as the contact for distribution. Several commissioners acknowledged the testimony and described steps they had taken to collect information. Commissioner Jason Snyder said he had asked for and reviewed extensive information and asked the public to review the answers objectively. Commissioners did not take formal action at the Feb. 25 meeting on the public requests; several speakers requested a work session and an outside audit going forward.

No formal election findings or new policies were adopted at the meeting. Commissioners said staff would provide written responses and that the board would consider further briefings or sessions to address the questions raised by residents.