PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 22, 2022
ELECTION: ‘We could see
more sophisticated attacks’
Continued from page A2
elections that eroded people's trust in Marquette Law School similarly found
the way that we do elections and in our that nearly one-third of all voters weren’t
democracy.”
confident in the 2020 election results.
As Fagan and other election officials Republicans gained a little more confi-
throughout Oregon and the U.S. seek dence in Wisconsin elections between
to restore trust in the election system August 2021 and the most recent sur-
during the 2022 elections, they face a vey in February, but more than 60% of
political reality that some candidates them still don’t trust their state election
believe they’ll benefit from sowing doubt. results.
One leading Republican candi-
Fagan attributed Oregon’s higher
date for governor, Sandy Mayor Stan confidence in elections to the state’s his-
Pulliam, insists the 2020 election was tory of holding mail elections supervised
fraudulent. He previously told the by both Democratic and Republican
Capital Chronicle he also had doubts officials. She noted that her immediate
about Oregon’s 20-year history of run- predecessors, Bev Clarno and Dennis
ning elections by mail, as only one Richardson, were both Republicans who
Republican candidate has won statewide promoted the state’s vote-by-mail system.
since Oregon began running elections
“While some Oregonians lost trust
by mail in 2000.
in our elections in 2020, it wasn’t like
A month ahead of the primary elec- Arizona or Michigan where there was
tion, Pulliam has added just one policy really a concerted effort to erode trust
proposal to his website: a plan to end in our democracy,” she said. “It's really
automatic voter registration, ban anyone because of a national conversation about
other than a voter from returning a ballot vote-by-mail and the false things the for-
and require post-election audits, which mer president was saying about vote-by-
are already required by state law.
mail that really caused that erosion of
“Nobody's doing Oregonians a ser- trust.”
vice by destroying trust in our election
However, Fagan said, 2022 could be a
system, particularly the candidates who more difficult election in Oregon. This
are trying to be elected in that very sys- year is the first under a new law that
tem,” Fagan said.
requires ballots be counted as long as
While a significant percentage of they’re postmarked by Election Day and
Oregon voters, and particularly Oregon arrive within the next week. That means
Republicans, doubt the integrity of the Oregonians may not have a clear idea of
election system, Oregonians still have who’s winning an election, or even how
more faith in the state’s election than vot- many votes are left to count, as they tra-
ers nationally or in states that have been ditionally have on election night.
the epicenter of post-2020 election fraud
And pundits expect closer elections,
claims.
at least in some races, than Oregon has
Monmouth University has conducted seen in past years. The state will likely
national polls about election fraud beliefs have a three-way race for governor in the
six times since November 2020, find- general election, and crowded primaries
ing each time that 32% of respondents in multiple races could mean a very small
believed Biden won because of fraud. number of votes decide elections.
But those polls consis-
tently found that a major-
ity of Republicans believed
Biden’s election was fraud-
ulent – 61% of Republicans
in a January 2022 survey
and 73% in a November 2021
survey told Monmouth poll-
Senior Living Community
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Regular
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“Nobody should have been surprised
when Joe Biden won Oregon,” Fagan
said. “But in 2022, there could be a lot
closer races. We could see more sophis-
ticated attacks.”
To that end, Fagan and election offi-
cials around the state are focused on
what they call prebunking, as opposed
to reacting to fraud claims and trying
to debunk them after they spread. The
office has $370,000 recently appropriated
by the Legislature for statewide public
service announcements and responses
to election misinformation, and it’s using
$135,000 for two animated videos, radio
spots and ads about the postmark law
and closed primaries.
The first video, featuring an excited
cartoon blob and googly eyes on Oregon
landmarks, explains where to register
to vote and that priamaries are closed.
Fagan said that idea came from a con-
versation with county clerks, who said
they commonly field questions from
voters who don’t understand why their
spouse has a different ballot or why they
can’t vote for a candidate whose ads they
watched.
Every Oregon voter will receive a
ballot in May, but only Republicans or
Democrats get to vote for candidates
running in partisan primaries for offices
including the governor, Congress and
the Legislature. More than 1.2 million vot-
ers, about 41% of the electorate, will only
get to vote in nonpartisan races such as
the commissioner of the state Bureau of
Labor and Industries and judgess.
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Emerald
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crossword
answers pg A22