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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TuESDAY, DEcEmbER 11, 2018
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
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circulation manager
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business manager
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Systems manager
OUR VIEW
Oregon leads nation in ease of voting
U
nlike much of the U.S.,
last month’s mid-term
election was ho-hum in
Oregon — as in, few election
snafus.
The state Elections Division cer-
tified Oregon’s results last week,
while races in some states remained
undecided amid recounts, court
challenges and allegations of fraud.
From California to North Carolina,
questions have been raised about
the security of absentee voting by
mail.
In Oregon, 1,914,923 voters cast
ballots — a record for a mid-term
election. Voting violations are rare,
although a union-backed group,
Our Oregon, did deliver 97 ballots
to the Multnomah County elections
office a day after the election dead-
line. The state Elections Division is
investigating.
The ballots were collected from
voters but not turned in by Defend
Oregon, a political action com-
mittee affiliated with Our Ore-
gon. Groups collect ballots to
ensure they are cast, but the prac-
tice — called ballot harvesting —
has raised concerns in some states
for fear that partisan groups might
have discarded ballots, because of
the voters’ demographics, or altered
unsealed ballots.
Such concerns provide one more
reason why Oregon should make
its ballots postage-paid so more
voters mail them in, as Gov. Kate
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
Elections volunteer Linda Brown points a voter to a designated ballot drop box
in Lake Oswego outside City Hall on Nov. 6.
Brown proposed in her 2019-21
state budget recommendation.
The reality is that the term “vote-
by-mail” is inaccurate. Ballots are
delivered to voters by mail but not
necessarily returned that way. A
2016 survey found the majority of
voters in Oregon, California and
Washington took their ballots to a
county elections office or official
drop-site.
Oregon led the nation in launch-
ing all-mail voting, and this year
gained the distinction of being
the No. 1 state for ease of voting.
Political scientists from North-
ern Illinois University, Jackson-
ville University and China’s Wuhan
University created a “Cost of Vot-
ing Index” to analyze each state’s
election laws.
Following Oregon at No. 1 were
Colorado, California, North Dakota
and Iowa. At the bottom: Missis-
sippi, Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana
and Texas.
Oregon combines vote-by-mail
with automatic voter registration
when an Oregon resident and U.S.
citizen visits the DMV to apply
for, renew or replace a state driver
license, permit or identification
card. Brown wants to expand that
automatic registration to include
citizen interactions at other state
agencies.
By the way, 16- and 17-year-
olds can register, but not vote until
age 18.
However, Oregon lags in other
ways. A third of U.S. states allow
voter registration up through Elec-
tion Day. North Dakota doesn’t
even require registration. Yet Ore-
gon cuts off registration 20 days
before an election, having ended
same-day registration in the 1980s
because followers of the Bhagwan
Shree Rajneesh recruited home-
less individuals around the U.S. to
come to Wasco County and vote
for the sect’s local candidates.
Vote-by-mail in Oregon has been
studied extensively. There is lit-
tle evidence of fraud, although 48
individuals were suspected of vot-
ing twice in the 2016 presidential
election, and six ballots were sub-
mitted from dead persons.
Such allegations are unsettling
in a state that prides itself on clean
elections. Yet they are tiny com-
pared with the complaints of elec-
tion fraud and vote suppression
roiling other states.
LETTERS
Airbnb vote
was shortsighted,
mean-spirited
R
egarding the Dec. 3 Airbnb vote
(“Astoria passes new homestay lodg-
ing license,” The Daily Astorian, Dec. 4):
Once again the Astoria City Council has
made a decision that is both shortsighted
and mean-spirited.
Shortsighted, in that Airbnb hosts are
some of the best advocates for Astoria,
bringing strangers into their homes, treat-
ing them like personal guests, and regal-
ing them with all that Astoria offers.
Mean-spirited in that the Airbnb hosts I per-
sonally know operate on a slim margin and
often, as was made clear in the meeting, use
their meager profits to pay house expenses.
Our lame-duck council may believe that
licensing and inspection fees will help fill
city coffers; they have not looked further
ahead to see how many hosts will do the
math and say, “Not worth it.”
I moved to Astoria only after visiting
three summers in a row, each time stay-
ing with a different Airbnb host. They
more than welcomed me. They drew me
into life in Astoria, listened to my plans
to live here, and advised me on great
places where I could volunteer and quickly
become part of the community.
If City Council members think I could
have easily gained these perspectives from
motel owners, they are blind indeed.
ELLEN FRYE
Astoria
Express your opinions
on hotel project
he almost 48-foot tall Fairfield Hotel
project at Second Street and the Asto-
ria Riverwalk will be before the Astoria
City Council on Dec. 12 at 6:30 p.m., in
what will likely be its last public hearing.
This massive project will set the standard
for much of the Urban Core plan between
Second and 16th streets and the City
Council needs to hear from you.
The developer believes design stan-
dards and guidelines only apply to alter-
ations/additions and not all uses, as
required. They also believe their entire
four-story hotel isn’t subject to review of
its mass and scale by the city. The City
Council needs to hear from you that new
buildings must meet design standards and
guidelines, and the entire Fairfield Hotel
must be subject to review of its mass and
scale, or what you enjoy about our river-
front and Riverwalk will soon be lost.
According to the recent staff report,
the city suggested to the developer during
T
conversations at the pre-application stages
how to reduce the large “box” appearance
of the hotel, but they continue with what
some say looks like a “cigar box.”
Please try to attend this Wednesday’s
6:30 p.m. City Council meeting about the
Fairfield Hotel to express your concerns or
support others. The Riverwalk and river-
front and Astoria need you.
MARY LANGLEY
Astoria
Constitution’s framers
saw Trump coming
O
n the morning of Nov. 7, President
Donald Trump forced Attorney Gen-
eral Jeff Sessions from his position and
immediately installed Matthew Whita-
ker as acting attorney general. Trump
did so without the advice and consent of
the Senate. Whitaker has been outspo-
ken on Trump’s behalf; it was a transpar-
ent attempt by Trump to try to control the
Mueller investigation. Unless Whitaker
recuses himself, he could take charge of
the investigation.
The courts will decide whether Trump’s
move to install Whitaker was legal. Paul
Rosenzweig, a George W. Bush admin-
istration attorney, said of Whitaker’s
appointment, “It can’t be the case that
the Constitution and its framers, having
just fought a war to end kingly tyranny,
enabled a king.’”
Tom Goldstein, an attorney who
appears frequently before the Supreme
Court, wrote, “The framers saw Donald
Trump coming almost 250 years ago. They
had King George to work from.”
The founders required in Article II, Sec-
tion 2, Clause 2 the advice and consent of
the Senate for the appointment of officers
like the attorney general. The Senate con-
firmation process is a check on the pres-
ident’s powers. The founders feared that
unchecked, a president could act like a
king and appoint loyalists and place him or
herself above the law.
LAURA ALLEN
Seaside
Celebrate efforts to
make commercial
fishing safer
I
appreciated seeing Colin Murphey’s
photography feature showing our local
commercial fishing crews engaged in
safety training on Nov. 30 (“Fishing — the
Most Dangerous Game,” The Daily Asto-
rian). However, the headline struck me as
somewhat inappropriate for the content.
The Coast Guard holds a drill conduc-
tor training here in Astoria three to four
times a year, and Oregon Sea Grant helps
get fishermen signed up. These classes fill
up regularly, both with greenhorns and
fishermen who have been going to sea for
years. I see this as a testament to our fleet’s
dedication to safety and preparedness.
Oregon Sea Grant recently held two First
Aid Kit Building workshops, based on
Oregon State University research on injury
prevention. We have equipped 10 vessels
to be better prepared for medical situations
at sea — where medical assistance can be
hours away — and hope to hold more of
these workshops in the future.
These and other actions that our com-
mercial fishing community are taking to
make commercial fishing a safer occu-
pation should be celebrated, rather than
held up to illustrate the dangers of the job.
Despite the inherent risks, the crew of the
F/V Courageous and other fishermen are
training hard to increase their likelihood of
coming home safe at the end of day.
AMANDA GLADICS
Astoria