Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Elections topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Public speakers press county on alleged voter‑registration errors; board schedules January work session
Summary
Multiple residents at the Dec. 3 meeting alleged errors in voter rolls and DMV registration processes and urged the board to consider home rule or non‑certification; the board said an election‑process work session is scheduled for Jan. 21 and open to the public.
Several members of the public used the board's second public comment period on Dec. 3 to raise allegations about voter‑registration records and local election procedures and to ask the board to act.
Karen Schmidlin reported a volunteer canvass of 502 "suspicious" records and gave counts from her review. Mary Halkiopoulos cited an Oregon DMV data release and a media summary asserting that from Jan. 1, 2021 to Oct. 18, 2024 the DMV and paper/electronic processes produced 62,949 registrations of "individuals of unknown citizenship status" statewide; she extrapolated that Washington County might account for roughly 8,183 of those records based on its share of statewide voters and urged non‑certification or roll cleaning. John Woods and other speakers repeated related concerns about alleged DMV registrations and said local procedures had not adequately removed ineligible registrants.
Commenters also asserted operational problems during counting (rescan events and sorter issues) and urged home rule or county control of voter rolls. Bob Terry and others urged commissioners to consider disconnecting from statewide systems and running county‑level registration; petition literature and an organization called End Vote By Mail were cited by one speaker.
County response and board next steps Chair Harrington and staff noted the board is scheduled to receive an update from elections staff at a Jan. 21 work session about the November 5 election process. The board reiterated that work sessions are public and encouraged attendance. No board action on certification was taken during the Dec. 3 meeting.
Context and limits Commenters cited DMV and media figures and offered proposed remedies (clean rolls, rerun elections, remove ballots of certain registrants). County officials did not adopt those remedies on Dec. 3; staff said an informational work session is forthcoming. Allegations and numeric claims are reported here as made by public commenters; the county's official election data and conclusions will be developed by elections staff at the scheduled work session.
