The following is a Letter to the Editor By Secretary of State Kate Brown
Oregonians have many good reasons to be proud of our election system.
Our voter turnout is among the highest in the country. Our vote-by-mail system is admired throughout the United States and around the world. It’s convenient and enjoys wide popular support in the state. Most importantly, it’s secure.
Despite these successes, I hear concerns about the safety of our system. Some people still fear that it’s rife with fraud, including illegal immigrants registering and voting or thousands of deceased Oregonians still on the voter rolls and receiving ballots.
I listen carefully to these concerns, but the fact of the matter is they’re wrong. Fraud is extremely rare in Oregon, and when it happens we take it very seriously. Oregonians have cast more than 15 million ballots by mail since 2000. In that time we have investigated thousands of fraud complaints, including examples of those mentioned above.
Those thousands of investigations resulted in nine prosecutions. We’ve issued fines and jail terms and seen deportations. But nine prosecutions out of thousands of investigations tells us we’re not looking at systemic voter fraud. Most complaints are well-intentioned but unfounded.
There are reasons why such fraud is so rare. For starters, our county clerks and their staffs on the front lines of the effort work hard every day to make sure voter rolls are clean, accurate and secure. We have a rigorous signature verification system to ensure only legally eligible voters cast a ballot, and our election teams are trained by forensics experts.
We also have the help of federal immigration authorities. Before swearing in new citizens, immigration officials check to make sure prospective citizens weren’t on voter rolls or voted before achieving legal citizenship. A citizenship petition can be denied if they were.
Perhaps the greatest deterrents are the penalties for a Class C felony. That’s the crime when someone ineligible casts a ballot, votes under a false name, forges a signature on a ballot envelope or falsely registers to vote. If they do manage to get by our security checks, the Oregon Department of Justice will prosecute and then we’re talking five years in prison, a $125,000 fine and, when appropriate, deportation.
For example, a Josephine County man who was not a citizen forged the name of his younger brother, a citizen, on a voter registration card. We investigated, the Department of Justice prosecuted and he was convicted of four felonies and deported. Now he can never become an American. In Marion County court, 80-year-old Lafayette F. Keaton of Portland faces two felony charges that he voted under the names of dead relatives.
Some cases involve human error. One woman, not a citizen, marked on the voter registration form that she was. She apparently misunderstood the question. We caught it and revoked her registration right away. She wasn’t prosecuted because it appeared to be an honest mistake.
We deploy a full arsenal of tools against voter fraud, including long prison terms, heavy fines and deportation. We have checks and balances at all levels of the system. And we have the Department of Justice prosecutors backing us up.
As chief elections officer, it’s my job to protect the integrity of the ballot. If you suspect any kind of fraud at all, you should call us at 503-986-1518 with as many details as possible. Believe me, we’ll investigate.
Kate Brown is Oregon Secretary of State.
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