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.
Subscriber services:
For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops
or delivery concerns call 1-800-522-0255 ext. 1
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
EZPay
52 weeks
26 weeks
13 weeks
Local home delivery Savings (cover price)
$13/month
60 percent
$173.67
41 percent
$91.86
38 percent
$47.77
36 percent
*EZ Pay = one-year rate with a monthly credit
or debit card/check charge
Single copy price:
$1.50 Tuesday through Saturday
Circulation Dept.
800-781-3214
ADVERTISING
Regional Publisher and Revenue Director:
• Christopher Rush
541-278-2669 • crush@eomediagroup.com
Advertising Services:
• Angela Treadwell
541-966-0827 • atreadwell@eastoregonian.com
• Grace Bubar
541-276-2214 • gbubar@eastoregonian.com
Multimedia Consultants:
• Jeanne Jewett
541-564-4531 • jjewett@eastoregonian.com
• Audra Workman
541-564-4538 • aworkman@eastoregonian.com
Business Office Coordinator
• Dayle Stinson
541-278-2670 • dstinson@eastoregonian.com
Classified & Legal Advertising
1-800-962-2819 or 541-278-2678
classifieds@eastoregonian.com or legals@eastoregonian.com
NEWS
• To submit news tips and press releases:
call 541-966-0818 or email news@eastoregonian.com
• To submit community events, calendar items and Your EO News:
email community@eastoregonian.com or call Tammy Malgesini
at 541-564-4539 or Renee Struthers at 541-966-0818.
• To submit engagements, weddings and anniversaries:
email rstruthers@eastoregonian.com or visit eastoregonian.
com/community/announcements
• To submit sports or outdoors information or tips:
541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com
Business Office Manager:
541-966-0824
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com