SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2020
Baker City, Oregon
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OUR VIEW
Elections
director’s
firing
raises
questions
Oregon’s vote-by-mail ballot system is a model for other
states. That doesn’t mean there aren’t things that need to
be fixed.
It may not be the smoothest way to learn about pos-
sible problems, but the departure of Elections Director
Steve Trout has helped reveal a few.
Trout says he was fired by text message from Oregon
Secretary of State Bev Clarno last week. He had planned
on leaving, anyway.
What he had also done is sent a memo just before the
election to the Democratic and Republican candidates
for secretary of state, Shemia Fagan and Kim Thatcher.
He warned about serious issues. He said the elections
division had not received money he wanted for projects
to replace the state’s campaign finance website and do
security upgrades.
“Some of our election systems are running on Windows
Server 2008,” Trout wrote. “End-of-life mainstream sup-
port from Microsoft ended back on January 13, 2015, and
all support ended on January 14, 2020. Our public facing
websites are single threaded through one power supply
on the capitol mall and one internet connection. There is
no redundancy or resiliency or plan to provide either.”
Worrisome, to say the least. When Fagan takes office,
she needs to investigate and tell Oregonians if the issues
Trout raises are legitimate or not.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Baker City Herald.
Columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the
authors and not necessarily that of the Baker City Herald.
OTHER VIEWS
Encouraging news on COVID-19
Editorial from (Minneapolis)
Star Tribune:
The welcome news that a COVID-19
vaccine now under development appears
to be far more effective than initially
hoped is a much-needed burst of good
news as the pandemic gathers force
across the nation.
But the announcement does not mean
it’s time to cast aside face masks or other
precautions. Nor is it accurate to say that
COVID is now “cured,” as Sen. Ted Cruz,
R-Texas, irresponsibly posted on Twitter.
The positive results shared by Pfi zer
are encouraging but come with impor-
tant caveats. One is that the numbers
aren’t fi nal. While the pharmaceutical
giant says its vaccine is more than 90%
effective in preventing COVID in those
who haven’t been infected, these are in-
terim results. The trial remains ongoing.
It’s also important to understand that
a COVID vaccine, when it becomes avail-
able, will prevent the disease in those
who haven’t been infected. But it’s not a
treatment for those who are severely ill
with it or those who have been infected
and potentially face long-term complica-
tions.
In addition, Pfi zer’s data was shared
via a news release instead of in a more
rigorously reviewed medical journal.
Still, the early data is promising, and
the company “plans to ask the Food and
Drug Administration for emergency
authorization of the two-dose vaccine
later this month,” The New York Times
reported. The company estimated that it
will have manufactured enough vaccine
by January to immunize 15 million to 20
million people.
In the meantime, Minnesota’s Michael
Osterholm is warning that the nation
is “about to enter COVID hell.” Disease
metrics here and elsewhere back him up.
Daily cases nationwide topped 130,000
this week, a 14-day change of 64%, ac-
cording to The New York Times’ COVID
tracker. Deaths rose 18% over the same
period.
Osterholm, who heads the University
of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious
Disease Research and Policy, was named
to President-elect Joe Biden’s COVID
task force earlier this week. The advisory
group includes other respected scientists
and public health experts. The Trump
task force should cooperate with the new
Biden group. The nation needs the new
team to get a running start. The Trump
administration also shouldn’t give up
fi ghting the virus during the transition.
The best defense for individuals re-
mains the low-tech tools of social distanc-
ing, face masks, hygiene, limiting family
gatherings and getting tested right away
if you develop symptoms.
The Pfi zer vaccine’s early success en-
hances the value of these commonsense
safeguards. This is no longer just about
spacing out infections to prevent maxing
out hospital capacity. Instead, buckling
down until there’s a vaccine could stop
people from getting infected altogether.
That’s important when many COVID
survivors, even those with mild infec-
tions, report troubling symptoms such
as fatigue, shortness of breath, joint pain
and memory lapses months afterward.
The encouraging news from Pfi zer,
as well as the promising progress made
by other companies developing COVID
vaccines, is a reminder of the remarkable
work underway by the world’s doctors
and scientists. They merit our gratitude
as the fi nish line looms. The best way to
thank them: taking individual actions,
such as wearing a mask and restricting
family gatherings, to stop COVID from
gaining even more strength.
A graceful exit? I’m not holding my breath
President Donald Trump has
plenty of reasons to be particularly
gracious in defeat.
I type those words without be-
ing, so far as I know, affl icted by a
tumor that is squishing whatever
part of my brain controls reasoning
and logic.
Nor am I under the infl uence of
any drug stronger than caffeine.
(And even that stimulant’s ef-
fects are tempered by a generous
dollop of eggnog.)
I understand that “gracious” is
not among the adjectives often at-
tributed to the president.
Certainly the word poses no
threat to, say, “obnoxious” or “arro-
gant” when it comes to the Trump
Top 10.
But even as the president and
his acolytes contest the election
results that gave the victory to Joe
Biden, Trump ought not feel that
he is the architect of an epic politi-
cal failure.
Indeed it’s remarkable that
Biden’s margins in several key
states were so slight that Trump’s
challenges have a veneer — albeit
an exceedingly thin one, best mea-
sured in microns — of plausibility.
Based on generally accepted
political standards, Trump should
have lost in a way that could be
described as “McGovernian.”
(Or “Mondalian” if you prefer an
invented adjective with an extra-
terrestrial fl avor.)
Trump, unlike those two hapless
Democratic candidates, was of
course already ensconced in the
White House.
Except the traditional advantag-
JAYSON
JACOBY
es afforded by incumbency hardly
seemed a factor in 2020.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
Consider that Trump over the
past 9 months has presided over
the worst economic calamity to
befall this country in more than 80
years.
He has been in offi ce during the
most dangerous pandemic to affl ict
the nation in a century, and he has
been widely criticized — sometimes
speciously, sometimes with justifi -
cation — for botching the chance to
use his unique position to calm and
to lead a troubled nation during
dark days.
Finally, the last year of Trump’s
term has been marked by a level
of social and racial strife America
hasn’t seen since the 1960s.
Even one of those factors might
have damaged Trump’s presidency
and all but ensured a Biden land-
slide of the sort that Ronald Rea-
gan infl icted on Walter Mondale
in 1984, or comparable to Richard
Nixon’s dominance of George Mc-
Govern a dozen years earlier.
But with all three crises hap-
pening simultaneously, the most
surprising part of the election was
not that Biden (almost certainly)
won, but rather that Trump, carry-
ing more political baggage than a
747, very nearly did.
Given that, the president, who
seems to delight in defying expecta-
tions, could terribly confuse his
legions of detractors by saying
something along the lines of “Joe
Biden has won the Electoral Col-
lege based on what we know today,
but I believe that to ensure Ameri-
cans have complete confi dence
in the integrity of our electoral
process, I must pursue the legal
remedies available to determine,
to the extent possible, whether
alleged improprieties affected the
outcome.”
Of course the president has not
said anything of the sort.
And I no more expect him to
make such a speech than I expect
him to give up golf.
Or Twitter.
Trump has instead insisted, with
the simplistic and smug certainty
that is perhaps his most tiresome
trademark, that the election was
“stolen.”
The president’s critics, in re-
sponse to that claim, have adopted
as their mantra the word “unsub-
stantiated.”
But even the most zealous
Trump opponent must concede that
the 2020 election, due to the pan-
demic, was unique. Never have so
many Americans cast mail ballots.
This doesn’t mean widespread
voter fraud happened. It certainly
doesn’t mean that it was inevitable.
But the unprecedented nature of
the voting lends a patina of plausi-
bility to the allegations.
Ultimately, this is a question
which we ought to be able to
answer. If we can count almost
150 million ballots then we can
determine, to the satisfaction of any
reasonable person, that the results
are valid. Trump and his support-
ers, who are nothing if not loyal, are
leveling the extraordinary accusa-
tion that voter fraud changed the
outcome of a presidential election.
If they can’t show us indisputable
proof, then their charge will turn
out to be not merely unfounded, but
reckless.
Biden, meanwhile, vows that
he will strive to unify a divided
America.
You needn’t be a pessimist to
wonder whether that’s possible.
But if Biden is to succeed even
partially at this seemingly Sisyph-
ean task, then he must never forget
that about 72 million of the people
who likely will become his constitu-
ents in January voted for Trump.
And however tempting it might
be to dismiss that sizable group as
beneath contempt, as some of the
more strident left-wing zealots do,
I hope Biden will be more circum-
spect.
The more vociferous anti-
Trumpers, it seems to me, confl ate
every vote for the president into an
enthusiastic endorsement of the
man’s abrasive personality.
This is silly.
As silly as contending that each
of the 77 million or so Americans
who voted for Biden did so solely
because they were overwhelmed by
his charisma and keen vision for a
great American revival, and not at
all infl uenced by their disdain for
Trump.
Only those two had a legitimate
chance to win the election. And the
vast majority of voters, quite natu-
rally, want to support a candidate
who can win.
I hope Biden understands that
some Trump voters, and possibly a
signifi cant percentage of them, fi nd
Trump the man at times repre-
hensible and consider his Twit-
ter account a torrent of juvenile
putdowns. Yet they support his
administration’s pursuit of tax cuts
and a reasonable curbing of govern-
ment regulations because those ap-
proaches best refl ect their personal
preferences.
In any case the election is no
mandate for Biden to pursue a
drastic recasting of this country.
The mistake that I think many
people have made since Trump
became a candidate in 2015 is to
treat his tweets as if they matter
as much as, if not more than, his
policies.
It seems to me that many of
Trump’s most ardent opponents
have been seduced by his cult of
personality as thoroughly as his
bootlickers have been.
I’m often appalled by the man’s
apparent lack of anything resem-
bling tact. But I don’t take this per-
sonally. He’s certainly not speaking
(or tweeting) to me.
To fret obsessively about his
sophomoric nicknames for his foes,
as though these slurs affect our
lives, and our nation, more than his
actions as the head of the executive
branch, is to give him what all bul-
lies crave, which is attention.
Jayson Jacoby is editor
of the Baker City Herald.