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Residents press Washington County commissioners for audits, ‘home rule’ and changes to election processes
Summary
Residents delivered extended public comments at the Dec. 10 meeting urging audits, greater observer access, home-rule action on voter rolls and changes to mail-ballot and adjudication practices; speakers cited federal and state statutes, past ballot handling errors and requested fee waivers for records requests.
Multiple Washington County residents used the board’s public-comment periods on Dec. 10 to press the Board of Commissioners for changes to election administration, calling for audits, greater observation of ballot processing and consideration of home-rule authority.
Roger Law, who identified himself as a 42-year resident, described concerns about the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and the federal postcard (FPCA) process, saying the form can be used to add "invalid or phantom voters" because it lacks robust identity checks. "What prevents fraudsters from using UOCAVA to register people without their knowledge?" he asked, urging the county to allow closer observation of processing steps.
Jill Latray described limits on meaningful observation during ballot adjudication, saying observers could not view some adjudication workstations and that batches of unscannable ballots reported a "wrong number of timing marks." She said she recorded adjudication outcomes that differed notably from county-wide patterns and requested that the county waive records-request fees for citizens seeking comprehensive reviews. "We need to have meaningful observation," she said.
Mary Halkiopoulos said she and others sent a letter to the Oregon Secretary of State requesting non-certification of the Nov. 5 general election and cited post-election testing procedures and ORS 254.525. She said a reconciliation discrepancy (a box with an apparent overcount) and the timing of tests and certification raised questions about whether required procedures were followed.
Other speakers argued that state laws and recent bills have allowed inactive or improperly registered voters to remain on rolls. Janet Bailey, who asked for a five-minute slot, urged the board to "clean our voter rolls, require ID showing address and citizenship, stop registering voters at motor vehicles" and to consider returning to more local control over elections. Bob Terry, a former county commissioner, called for invoking home rule to disconnect local voter rolls from state systems and to restore local accountability.
County officials did not take any formal action on these public requests during the meeting; the public comments were recorded as citizen input. The speakers asked the board to pursue greater transparency, increased observation rights for citizens, fee waivers for post-election public-records access and possible home-rule steps that would require further legal and procedural work by the board and staff.
The board did not discuss or vote on election-policy changes at the Dec. 10 meeting. Commissioners acknowledged receipt of the comments; the meeting moved on to consent items and scheduling.
