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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 29, 2019)
NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Thursday, August 29, 2019 Focus on security, counting votes in 2020 Money, voting security and a new way to count votes are in the mix By GARY A. WARNER Bend Bulletin SALEM — Money, secu- rity and a new way of vot- ing are part of the growing drumbeat of news surround- ing the 2020 election. The number of candidates who have created campaign finance committees has jumped to 79 as of Tuesday. Candidates can’t officially file for office until Sept. 12, but fundraising political action committees can open their coffers earlier. Some of the election buzz this past week in the Oregon Capitol: EO Media Group file photo U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D- Ore., is a vocal champion of Oregon’s vote-by-mail system, which he would like to see expanded to the entire country. Flourishing fundraising ing to the political finance watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics. Walden has $1.7 mil- lion cash on hand, which includes money rolled over from the last election cycle. His top contributor, through individual contributions and affiliated political action committees, is Philadel- phia-based Comcast Corp. The telecommunications Fundraising for the 2020 election is starting to pick up, according to statistics tracking contributions to lawmakers in Congress and the Legislature. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, whose dis- trict includes Umatilla and Morrow counties, has raised $858,755 in the current fed- eral election cycle, which runs through 2020, accord- conglomerate has given Walden a total of $31,200 as of June 30. Campaign contributions to state lawmakers are com- piled by the Oregon Secre- tary of State’s Office. Election security dry run Information technology and election officials from all 36 Oregon counties recently Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY Very warm with periods of sun Partly sunny and very warm Very warm with some sun Mainly cloudy Mostly sunny and nice 89° 64° 90° 59° 93° 66° 92° 61° PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 91° 65° 86° 56° 89° 61° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 95° 66° 90° 61° 92° 63° OREGON FORECAST ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 70/61 80/57 88/58 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 88/67 Lewiston 78/60 92/66 Astoria 70/58 Pullman Yakima 88/62 75/58 86/65 Portland Hermiston 83/62 The Dalles 93/66 Salem Corvallis 79/56 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 86/58 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 83/58 86/55 90/60 Ontario 97/66 Caldwell Burns 93° 52° 85° 54° 101° (1986) 40° (1964) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 83/57 Boardman Pendleton Medford 92/60 0.00" 0.05" 0.18" 4.61" 5.15" 6.10" WINDS (in mph) 95/63 91/51 0.00" 0.12" 0.38" 9.73" 6.52" 8.33" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 83/55 84/57 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 89/64 90/64 93° 56° 84° 55° 105° (1972) 37° (1909) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 75/58 Aberdeen 81/62 86/65 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 74/63 Today Fri. SW 7-14 W 7-14 SW 8-16 WNW 6-12 gathered in La Grande for a four-hour election cyber- security exercise sponsored by the Elections Division of the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office. The event was in partnership with the U.S. Department of Home- land Security and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infra- structure Security Agency. All Oregon counties belong to the Elections Infrastruc- ture Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which shares threat information between federal, state and local governments. Troubleshooting during the exercise included pass- word strength and recog- nizing “phishing” attempts. Secretary of State Bev Clarno has said Oregon’s vote-by-mail system makes the state’s elections more secure because there are only 36 county election offices where ballots are gathered instead of having to secure thousands of vot- ing booths across the state. Each location has a secured room for ballots that is under constant video surveillance. The tallying system that determines vote totals state- wide is not connected to the internet, making hacking extremely difficult to impos- sible. There are paper back- ups for all documents. Election facts vs. rumors Clarno said Tuesday she expects the biggest election problem in 2020 to be the same one as the last pres- idential election in 2016 — unsubstantiated rumors being passed off as facts. “Just because you read something on social media or online doesn’t mean it’s true,” Clarno said. Elections Director Steve Trout said Tuesday that one popular myth is that noncit- izens are being allowed to register to vote. “That is simply not true,” Trout said. “Only those who have provided proof of cit- izenship when they go to DMV are automatically reg- istered to vote.” Trout said “Oregon con- tinues to be a leader in secure elections.” Wyden still worried U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D- Ore., is a vocal champion of Oregon’s vote-by-mail system, which he would like to see expanded to the entire country. Wyden said Friday that the election systems across the 50 states have weak points that adversaries — particularly Russian hackers — will exploit. The time left to shore up defenses before the November 2020 election is running out, he said. “We would not ask a local sheriff to go to war against the missiles, tanks and planes of the Russian army,” Wyden said. “We shouldn’t ask a county elec- tion IT employee to fight a war against the full capabil- ities and vast resources of Russia’s cyber army. That approach failed in 2016, and it will fail again.” State department refuses issuance of passport to U.S.-born Oregonian By REBECCA ELLIS Oregon Public Broadcasting PORTLAND — The U.S. Department of State is blocking an Oregon woman born in the United States from receiving a passport, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. Maria Soto, 48, was born in Los Angeles, but was sent to Mexico to live with her grandparents when she was only a few months old, according to the fed- eral filing. She returned to the U.S. at age 18, settling in Klamath Falls. Last winter, Soto applied for a passport with the State Department. She’d made a first attempt more than two decades earlier, but was denied after the department asked for additional doc- uments and she failed to send them in. For her second attempt, Soto came armed with birth certificates from both the hospital and the gov- ernment, a Social Security card and a driver’s license, according to Leland Bax- ter-Neal, staff attorney with the ACLU of Oregon. But she was once again denied. This time, accord- ing to the suit, it was on the grounds that she displayed “insufficient evidence of citizenship.” Baxter-Neal says, while this is the first time he’s seen an Oregonian born in the U.S. denied a passport, he believes these incidents are increasing nationwide. “Across the country, there are lots of examples and anecdotal reports of an increase in denials of pass- ports for individuals who are from immigrant fami- lies or immigrant commu- nities,” he says. He points to reporting from the Washington Post last fall, which found that, under the Trump admin- istration, “hundreds, and possibly thousands, of His- panics along the border” had been accused of fak- ing their birth certificates and subsequently denied passports. Baxter-Neal said he believes Soto’s denial is “in line with what we see from the Trump administration treating individuals like our client Maria differently based on their heritage.” In response to the Wash- ington Post‘s reporting, the State Department insisted no changes had been made to the adjudication of pass- port applications under the administration. A spokes- person did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 85/52 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 6:12 a.m. 7:39 p.m. 4:55 a.m. 7:42 p.m. New First Full Last Aug 30 Sep 5 Sep 13 Sep 21 NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 111° in Needles, Calif. Low 24° in Stanley, Idaho NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY BRIEFLY Person dies in small plane crash near Oregon airport EUGENE — At least one person is dead after a small plane crashed in the trees near a small airfield off of Highway 126. KMTR-TV reported the Lane County Sheriff’s Office says they got the call at around 7 p.m. Tuesday. The crash hap- pened near the McKenzie Bridge State Airport. Authorities couldn’t immediately con- firm how many people were aboard the plane, but confirmed at least one fatality. No search and rescue teams were deployed, and the investigation is con- tained to the crash site. The plane is on the east side of the airport’s runway. The crash started a small fire that burned half an acre before being contained. The U.S. Forest Service was on-site overnight to contain the fire. FAA investigators were en route to the scene Wednesday morning. 2 teens arrested in homophobic vandalism case SALEM — Two teenagers in Salem have been arrested on suspicion of spray- ing homophobic graffiti on the house, car and driveway of another teen and throw- ing a rock into the window of his family home. The Salem Police Department said Wednesday that the teens were arrested Aug. 20 and have been charged in juve- nile court with a bias crime. Police say the graffiti was directed at the teen living in the home. A neighboring car was also damaged in the July 27 incident. Due to their age, authorities are with- holding the defendants’ names. — Associated Press Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s 50s ice 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211 Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed major holidays EastOregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to EastOregonian.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Copyright © 2019, EO Media Group 70s 80s 90s 100s warm front stationary front 110s high low CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818. 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