Election integrity doubters making unsupported claims get a warm welcome in Clackamas County

A national group that raises doubts about election integrity took their case to the Clackamas County Supervisory Board on Thursday, where their unsubstantiated claims went unchallenged.

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

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

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

They said their claims are based on a “citizen” audit of the 2022 election, which found the results were “not valid.” They asked commissioners to pass a resolution calling for “legally valid elections in 2024” and demanded an outside audit of Oregon elections.

“Large numbers of Americans, including many here in Oregon, have questions about the reliability 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 staff writer at Democracy Docket, a left-wing group that monitors voting rights and election disputes. He said the group’s lawsuits have been dismissed.

He said the organization relies on grassroots volunteers to search states’ voter rolls for irregularities, but their analyzes are rudimentary and usually wrong.

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

In 2017, Republican Secretary of State Dennis Richardson in Oregon combed voting data to root out election irregularities in the 2016 general election. He and prosecutors found 10 cases in which voters cast two ballots, most of them in two different states. Those convicted included four Democrats, one Republican, one Libertarian and four people not affiliated with any political party. Many of the cases were initially misdemeanors, but all were eventually reduced to misdemeanors.

Oregon has more than 3 million registered voters.

According to 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, program director at the Western States Center, a Portland-based organization that monitors right-wing extremism, called United Sovereign Americans an “election denier” group that “makes clear that they are organizing to disrupt free and fair elections by through lawsuits. . These activities cast doubt on the legitimate election results, mainstreaming anti-democracy ideas and pushing the United States toward authoritarianism.”

United Sovereign Americans’ campaign comes as government officials acknowledge they mistakenly referred an estimated 1,500 people to the secretary of state to register to vote, despite the fact they lack U.S. 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 that our elections are secure are. transparent and accurate.”

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

He said third-party reviews, such as the one United Sovereign Americans said it conducted on Oregon’s voter registration files, do not understand Oregon election law, which “leads to confusion.”

He cited the example of military voters registered at a previous address. “They will often appear on the voter rolls for years after they move while deployed,” he said. “This is completely legal and is in fact an important process to enfranchise members of the military.

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

“I found your testimony and determination compelling, to say the least,” she said.

Smith spoke at length about a friend who did not receive her ballot, despite living in Oregon for years.

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

Later in the meeting, she said she would look at the group’s submitted audit “to see what we can come up with.”

The speakers’ message was also warmly welcomed by Commissioner Mark Shull, a Republican, who encouraged them to advocate for changes to the longstanding state law that created mail-in ballots in Oregon.

Shull, a military veteran, invoked war language and called on attendees to “send the red star cluster,” referring to a distress call, and thanked them for “their patriotism.”

“Wake up,” he said. “Take action. Listen to the folks at United Sovereign Americans. You lit a fuse for this problem.”

He said they need to “send a signal to the entire state, and from the state to the nation, that it is time for us to take action.”

The crowd cheered.

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

“Nor am I going to be a government official or an elected official who will trick you and tell you that you are crazy, or say that you are wrong or that there is nothing to see here, as you can see with your own eyes, that the emperor has no clothes , and that something is wrong, and that there are honest questions and skepticism that are valid,” West said.

He described a recent meeting with the county clerk in which he called 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 attention” and that the clerk responded with the steps she has taken to ensure the rolls are accurate.

“It can’t be that a large part of our population simply doesn’t trust the way this works,” he said. “We must do our best to restore confidence in our electoral process.”

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

“I would strongly encourage those of you who are really interested in that to really consider becoming the people who are in the system, counting the votes and seeing what happens so that you get a first-hand experience of how they deal with it to deal with. on the ground,” she said.

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

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

“I’ll do the homework on this,” he said. “I appreciate your comments.”

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

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

The board will meet again next Tuesday.

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

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