A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, April 15, 2020
Mistakes erode
the public’s
trust level
G
ov. Kate Brown
announced on March
18 that the state had a
deal with a private laboratory
to do 20,000 COVID-19 tests.
In early days of the state’s
pandemic response, it was a
very reassuring declaration
that the state could tap into
private testing to reveal the
scope of the virus.
“It’s critical for us to
increase our capacity so that
we can fully assess the spread
of COVID-19 in Oregon,”
Brown said.
But the deal turns out to be
about half true. The state is
only going to get about half
the tests. No contract had been
signed when the announce-
ment was made. And the state
does not plan to put the tests
into immediate use to test
more Oregonians.
We don’t believe Brown
intentionally misled anyone.
Nik Blosser, the governor’s
chief of staff, told The Orego-
nian it was his fault and apol-
ogized for the misinformation
provided to the governor to
announce.
The state was working on a
deal. He explained that he was
confused about how testing
works and rushed to release
information without confirm-
ing it.
The state actually did not
sign the contract with the pro-
vider, Quest Diagnostics,
until two weeks after Brown’s
announcement. It is for up to
$690,000 at $69 a test. And
the state is not planning to use
them right now. It will hold on
to them and use them later —
perhaps when some social dis-
tancing requirements are lifted
and there is a new surge.
How is it that we know
Brown’s announcement was
wrong?
We know because journal-
ists at The Oregonian asked
questions and used Oregon’s
public records law to hold
government accountable.
Reporters looked for a copy of
the contract in a state database.
It wasn’t there. They asked
for a copy of the contract.
It wasn’t provided until a
week later. And it turned out
the deal was smaller than had
been announced — 10,000
tests, not 20,000 — and had
not even been signed until
April 1.
In a crisis or under tight
deadlines, people do some-
times not act carefully. It’s
human nature. But it’s vital
that Oregonians can trust what
Brown says the state is doing
about COVID-19. She can’t
allow the public’s faith in the
government’s response to
erode.
GUEST COMMENT
Primary election will go on as scheduled
D
espite challenges brought by
the coronavirus pandemic,
Oregon’s May 19 Primary
Election will go on as scheduled.
Our proven vote by mail system
means we don’t have to be con-
cerned with social distancing issues
at polling places that so many other
states are struggling with. For the
first time in Oregon, ballots can be
returned without a stamp since the
state has provided prepaid return
postage. Ballots can still be deliv-
ered to an official drop box if you
prefer.
Election processes have been
underway for weeks now, and bal-
lots and the voters’ pamphlet are
at the printer being prepared to be
mailed out. Ballots for our military
and overseas voters have already
been mailed. The voters’ pamphlet
containing voting information, can-
didate statements and measure argu-
ments, should arrive at every res-
idential address in Oregon April
22-24. It also contains a voter regis-
tration form inside for anyone who
is not yet registered. Ballots will
start being mailed to registered vot-
ers on April 29.
The May 19 election is a primary
election. Primaries serve two main
purposes. The first is for all voters to
be able to cast bal-
lots for candidates
for nonpartisan
offices like judges
and some county
and other local
offices. The sec-
ond is for the vot-
Steve Trout
ers registered with
a major political party to select their
nominees for partisan office like
U.S. president, Oregon secretary of
state, treasurer and attorney general
and legislators at both the state and
national level.
Those 40-plus percent of Orego-
nians registered as not affiliated with
a political party, or registered with
a minor party (Constitution, Inde-
pendent, Libertarian, Pacific Green,
Progressive, Working Families), will
receive a ballot that includes only
nonpartisan offices. In the May Pri-
mary, only registered Republicans
will be able to vote to choose their
nominees for partisan offices, and
only registered Democrats will be
able to vote to choose their nomi-
nees for partisan offices. The U.S.
Supreme Court has ruled that polit-
ical parties get to decide who votes
in their primaries so those 1.2 mil-
lion of you registered as not affil-
iated with a political party or reg-
istered with a minor party will not
have candidates for president or any
partisan office on your May pri-
mary ballot. This is not a mistake.
You will have them on your Nov. 3
ballot.
If you desire to register to vote,
update your registration or change
your political party, the deadline is
April 28, but do it as soon as pos-
sible. As always, go to your trusted
source of election information at
oregonvotes.gov. Oregon is one of
the easiest places to register and
vote. At the beginning of April there
were 2,854,691 Oregonians reg-
istered to vote. That means 91%
of those that are eligible to vote
are registered to vote. That com-
pares to 10 years ago where we had
2,033,951 registered voters and 71%
of those eligible to vote were regis-
tered to vote.
We encourage all Oregonians to
be registered to vote with your most
current information, to study the
voters’ pamphlet and to participate
in our elections this year. The time
to engage is now! Visit oregonvotes.
gov/myvote to check your registra-
tion and update it if necessary.
Steve Trout is the director of the
Oregon Elections Division of the
Secretary of State.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Don’t bid on
Hammond
allotments
WHERE TO WRITE
GRANT COUNTY
• Grant County Courthouse — 201
S. Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City
97820. Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax:
541-575-2248.
• Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon
City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0509.
Fax: 541-575-0515. Email: tocc1862@
centurylink.net.
• Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville
97825. Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-
987-2187. Email:dville@ortelco.net
• John Day — 450 E. Main St, John
Day, 97845. Phone: 541-575-0028.
Fax: 541-575-1721. Email: cityjd@
centurytel.net.
• Long Creek — P.O. Box 489, Long
Creek 97856. Phone: 541-421-3601.
Fax: 541-421-3075. Email: info@
cityoflongcreek.com.
• Monument — P.O. Box 426,
Monument 97864. Phone
and fax: 541-934-2025. Email:
cityofmonument@centurytel.net.
• Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt.
Vernon 97865. Phone: 541-932-4688.
Fax: 541-932-4222. Email: cmtv@
ortelco.net.
• Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie
City 97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax:
820-3566. Email: pchall@ortelco.net.
• Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca
97873. Phone and fax: 541-542-2161.
Email: senecaoregon@gmail.com.
SALEM
• Gov. Kate Brown, D — 254 State
Capitol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503-378-
3111. Fax: 503-378-6827. Website:
governor.state.or.us/governor.html.
• Oregon Legislature — State
Capitol, Salem, 97310. Phone: (503)
986-1180. Website: leg.state.or.us
(includes Oregon Constitution and
Oregon Revised Statutes).
• Oregon Legislative Information —
(For updates on bills, services, capitol
or messages for legislators) — 800-
332-2313.
• Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario – 900
Court St. NE, S-301, Salem 97301.
Phone: 503-986-1730. Website:
oregonlegislature.gov/Bentz. Email:
Sen.CliffBentz@oregonlegislature.gov.
• Rep. Lynn Findley, R-Vale – 900 Court
St. NE, H-475, Salem 97301. Phone: 503-
986-1460. Website: oregonlegislature.
gov/findley. Email: Rep.LynnFindley@
oregonlegislature.gov.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
• The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20500; Phone-comments: 202-
456-1111; Switchboard: 202-456-
1414.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Published every
Wednesday by
To the Editor:
Our ranchers and grazing allot-
ment owners in Southeastern Ore-
gon are of the highest caliber
of working people. They under-
stand fully what it takes to run a
business when 73% of the area’s
resources needed to run that busi-
ness are manipulated by the U.S.
government. Further, ranchers are
honest, compassionate, environ-
mentally astute, ethical people
who depend on one another to help
each other when the need arises.
With this being said, I am mak-
ing the following request to those
ranchers, grazing allotment owners
and any other entities who have
been asked to bid on the Ham-
mond Ranch allotments.
Request: I am hereby asking all
these ranchers and allotment own-
ers, who were invited to bid on the
Hammond allotments, to decline
to do so, and if the process leads
them to be chosen to get these
allotments, I would ask them to
refuse the contract.
I make this request not just for
the Hammonds but for all the allot-
ment owners everywhere in Oregon
and the West!
I have asked the BLM via a
FOIA request for the list of all
entities who were asked to bid on
the allotments. The local BLM
people were helpful, but I doubt
I will receive the FOIA informa-
tion before the filing due date
of the 14th of April. I think it is
very telling that even the applica-
tion allotment maps are referred
to as “Hammond FFR #06100”
etc. Even the BLM knows these
are Hammonds’ allotments and are
“real property”!
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
Publisher............ ......................................Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com
Editor & General Manager ...............Sean Hart, editor@bmeagle.com
Reporter ...................................................Rudy Diaz, rudy@bmeagle.com
Reporter ...................................................... Steven Mitchell, steven@bmeagle.com
Sports ........................................................sports@bmeagle.com
Now our community needs
to come together and make this
request to decline to participate to
all the ranchers, and any others we
know, who may have been invited
to bid.
I have discussed the issue and
this approach with Dwight Ham-
mond, and he neither supported
nor rejected this approach, so I’m
moving this request forward. Pray
that they win the appeal to the
revocation of their allotments! We
must do what we, as a community,
can in the interim!
If they can do this injustice to
the Hammonds, they can do it to
any other allotment owner. We
need to stand together as a commu-
nity against tyranny and injustice!
Tim K. Smith
Hines
Non-affiliated voters
should choose party
To the Editor:
What is an “NAV” in the state of
Oregon? An “NAV” is a non-affili-
ated voter.
Do the Non-affiliated voters
realize the impact their vote has
on the Oregon election — or bet-
ter yet, does not have on an Oregon
election?
It may feel to a voter like they’re
proclaiming their independence by
not affiliating with a political party.
But that “independence” comes at
a price to our democracy, and par-
ticularly in Oregon, a closed pri-
mary state. May is our Primary elec-
tion. In 90% of the races in Oregon,
an NAV’s vote is meaningless; how
sad is that? Do NAV’s have this
realization?
Consider our state of Oregon
election system:
• First past the post voting guar-
antees that only two “sides” emerge
as viable candidates
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Marketing Rep .......................................Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com
MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Online: MyEagleNews.com
Phone: 541-575-0710
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corporate America
To the Editor:
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America from China, brought to you
courtesy of corporate America.
Fred Fitzgerald
Monument
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• Closed primaries mean only
major party voters participate, which
means that the most partisan Demo-
crats and Republicans select the only
two “viable” candidates. Especially
as the parties shrink to a smaller and
smaller group of the most partisan
and assured.
• And not least, gerrymandering.
Our Oregon state election laws
are structured so the Republican
May nominee wins in red districts.
The Democrats May nominee wins
in blue districts. In fact, in some dis-
tricts as few as 8% of the voters
effectively elect their state represen-
tatives because of safe gerryman-
dered districts and the shrinking size
of the dominant party.
The result? Non-affiliated vot-
ers are totally meaningless in 90%
of the districts in a state with closed
primaries and gerrymandered
districts.
Perhaps NAV’s in the County of
Grant should take a real hard look
at their choice. Perhaps NAV’s in
the County of Grant don’t realize
how devalued their vote becomes.
Perhaps NAV’s in the County of
Grant who favor or want change
should entertain changing their reg-
istration online at the secretary of
state’s website: http://sos.oregon.
gov/elections, under “Voting and
Elections.”
Frances Preston, chair
Grant County Oregon Republi-
can Central Committee
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Blue Mountain Eagle
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