Election integrity doubters pushing unsupported claims are getting a warm welcome in Clackamas County

A national group that sows doubts about the integrity of the elections took their case to Clackamas County Board of Commissioners on Thursday, where their baseless claims went unchallenged.

Board Chair Tootie Smith, In a close race for re-electiontold the group of about a dozen speakers that their presentation was “riveting.” Other commissioners either praised the comments or said they would not challenge them.

The group describes itself as volunteering with United Sovereign Americans, which says it has filed lawsuits in nine states “to secure the 2024 election.”

The speakers, who identified themselves as Clackamas County residents, made various unsupported claims about Oregon’s election system, one describing “massive bias” in the 2022 election “from registration through certification” and another characterizing the results as ” fraudulent and illegal”.

They said their claims were based on a “citizen” audit of the 2022 election, which concluded the results were “invalid”. They asked commissioners to pass a resolution calling for “legally valid 2024 elections” and called for an outside audit of Oregon’s elections.

“A large number of Americans, including many right here in Oregon, have questions about the credibility of our elections,” said a woman who said she lives in Milwaukie.

Their testimony is part of a national strategy by United Sovereign Americans, said Matt Cohen, a senior editor at the Democracy Docket, a left-leaning group that tracks voting rights and election litigation. He said the group’s lawsuits were dismissed.

He said the organization relies on grassroots volunteers who scrutinize state voter rolls to look for irregularities, but their analyzes are rudimentary and usually flawed.

“The important thing to know is that this group is making a lot of claims without the full picture,” said Cohen, who is based in Washington, DC.

In Oregon, Republican Secretary of State Dennis Richardson combed voting records in 2017 to root out election irregularities in the 2016 general election. He and state prosecutors found 10 cases where voters cast two ballots, in most cases in two different states. Among those convicted are four Democrats, one Republican, one Libertarian and four people not affiliated with a political party. Many of the cases initially involved felony charges, but all were eventually reduced to a misdemeanor.

Oregon has over 3 million registered voters.

Conformable a report this month in ProPublicaUnited Sovereign Americans is part of an effort to recruit poll workers and use their testimony to challenge the election process. The group discussed its plans on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, the news organization reported.

Lindsay Schubiner, director of programs at the Western States Center, a Portland-based organization that monitors right-wing extremism, called United Sovereign Americans an “election-negative” group that would “make it clear that they are organizing to disrupt free elections and correct through processes. . These activities cast doubt on the results of legitimate elections, embedding anti-democratic ideas and pushing the United States toward authoritarianism.”

The campaign by United Sovereign Americans comes as state officials admit they mistakenly sent about 1,500 people to the secretary of state to be registered to vote despite lacking US citizenship.

In response to questions about election integrity, Clackamas County Clerk Catherine McMullen told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Friday that her office has taken additional security measures to increase election integrity and said she and her staff are working to ” ensure our elections are safe and secure, transparent and accurate.”

Ben Morris, a spokesman for the Oregon secretary of state, said the group’s claims had “no credibility.” He said Oregon relies on “a robust program” to remove people who are ineligible to vote from the rolls of active voters.

He said third-party reviews, such as the one United Sovereign Americans said it conducted for Oregon voter registration files, fail to understand Oregon election law, “leading to confusion.”

He cited the example of military voters who are registered at a previous address. “They will often show up on electoral rolls years after they’ve moved while posted,” he said. “This is perfectly legal and is actually an important process to enfranchise” members of the military.

However, Smith, a conservative Republican who is locked in a tight race against retired County Sheriff Craig Roberts, did not dispute their claims.

“I found your resolution at least telling,” she said.

Smith spoke at length about a friend who did not receive her ballot even though she had lived in Oregon for many years.

She said she plans to encourage McMullen to watch a recording of the group’s testimony, saying, “I think there is some validity to a lot of what you said.”

Later in the meeting, she said she would review the audit presented by the group “to see what we can come up with.”

The speakers’ message also received a warm reception from Commissioner Mark Shull, a Republican, who encouraged them to advocate for changes to the state law that created mail-in ballots in Oregon.

A military veteran, Shull invoked the language of war, asking those gathered to “send the red star cluster,” referring to a distress call, and thanked them for their “patriotism.”

“Wake up,” he said. “Take action. Hear the united sovereign American people. You’ve blown a fuse on this problem.”

He said it needed to “send a signal to the entire state, and from the state to the nation, that it’s time to take action.”

The audience applauded.

Commissioner Ben West, also a Republican, told the United Sovereign Americans volunteers that he would not contest their claims.

“Also, I will not be a government official or an elected official who will gaslight you and say that you are crazy, or say that you are wrong, or I will not see anything here, as you can see with your own eyes, that the emperor does not have nothing. clothes and that something is wrong and there are fair questions and skepticism that is valid,” West said.

He described a recent meeting with the county clerk in which he pleaded for a “forensic audit” of the county’s voter rolls to ensure their accuracy — a request that drew applause from the audience. He said the request “didn’t get much traction” and that the clerk responded with steps she took to ensure the rolls were accurate.

“We can’t have a large segment of our population just not trusting how this works,” he said. “We must do better to restore confidence in our electoral process.”

Commissioner Martha Schrader, a Democrat, called the testimony “illuminating” and thanked those who spoke. She encouraged them to become volunteers or election observers.

“I would strongly suggest that those of you who are really interested in this, you should consider becoming the ones who are in the system counting the votes and watching what’s going on so that you can have a first-hand experience of how in which they manage. on earth,” she said.

Shull noted that many of those attending the meeting plan to serve as volunteers or election observers.

Commissioner Paul Savas said he plans to carefully review the group’s audit.

“I’ll do my homework on that,” he said. “I appreciate your comments.”

On Friday, Schrader told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he was “very suspicious” of the group and refused to challenge their claims because he wanted to listen.

She said she would not vote for what she described as a “crazy sauce” resolution.

The council will meet again next Tuesday.

— Noelle Crombie is an enterprise reporter with a focus on criminal justice. Reach her at 503-276-7184; ncrombie@oregonian.

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