Archive for the 'Road Trips' Category

Sec Brown Launches Pilot to Make Voting More Accessible

Published on November 2, 2011 in Elections, Headlines, Press Releases, Road Trips, Secretary Brown, Special Elections, Special Primary and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .
County Clerk Maeve Grimes exploring voting assistive device with Sec Brown

County Clerk Maeve Grimes exploring voting assistive device with Secretary Brown

On Tuesday, Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown concluded her tour of all five Oregon counties taking part in the November 8 special primary election. These five counties are part of a pilot project lead by the Secretary of State’s Elections Division. With a goal of making voting more accessible to those with disabilities, each of the counties were given a portable computer or iPad. The applications available on the iPad can assist Oregon voters with limited visibility or other issues causing them difficulty filling out their mail-in ballots.

In Washington County, Deborah Houghton a resident at an assisted living facility found the iPad helpful because she couldn’t read the fine print on her ballot. Members of Washington County’s Voter Assistance Team brought the iPad to Deborah. Using the screen to make the print larger Deborah was able to read the voter’s guide and the ballot for herself and vote. “This is so much better,” said Deborah. “I’ll be back in January to use the iPad again.”

If the pilot proves successful, the state elections office will make iPad’s available to all 36 counties. “I won my first race for the Oregon House of Representatives by seven votes,” said Secretary Brown. “I know how important every vote is and as your Secretary of State I am working hard to make voting more accessible to all eligible Oregonians

Andrea Cantu-Schomus
Communications Director
Oregon Secretary of State
andrea.l.cantu-schomus@state.or.us
503-986-2368
503-507-0082

Sustainability Board Members Visit Eastern Oregon Innovators

Published on September 26, 2011 in Headlines, Press Releases, Road Trips, Secretary Brown, Sustainability Board and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
Oregon Sustainability Board members tour airport pellet boiler

As the chair of the Oregon Sustainability Board, Secretary Brown is committed to traveling across the state to hear from every Oregonian about preserving Oregon’s natural resources, innovating for the future, and spurring economic growth.

In September, Secretary Brown convened a meeting of the Sustainability Board in John Day and Baker City and was joined by her fellow board members including Willamette University environmental law professor Robin Morris Collin and Trey Senn, director of the Klamath County Economic Development Association.

The first day of meetings took place on September 15 at the Grant County Regional Airport, which completed a noteworthy renovation last year. The airport now boasts a LEED certified, sustainable design that incorporates local and recycled materials. The retrofit has improved energy performance by more than a third.

The airport now doubles as an event and meeting center. Recently one of President Obama’s top advisers, Nancy Sutley, visited the Grant County Regional Airport on her trip to discuss the collaborative approach to forest health taken by Grant and Harney Counties, an approach that not only creates local, renewable energy sources but, also, creates local jobs.

Kate Brown checks out pellet boiler

Kate Brown checks out pellet boiler

During the first day of meetings, the Oregon Sustainability Board heard from the Blue Mountain Forest Collaborative and toured Malheur Lumber Company. Seeing new opportunity in this economic climate, Malheur Lumber Company started to manufacture pellet-burning boilers for sustainably harvested biomass. This investment in the future created at least six new jobs directly related to the new boilers. It has also resulted in the thinning of unhealthy and flammable forest growth.

Grant County Regional Airport features one of these innovative pellet boilers.

Robin Morris Collin and Sara Vickerman enjoy the tour of Malheur Lumber

Robin Morris Collin and Sara Vickerman enjoy the tour of Malheur Lumber

After a night at the haunted Geiser Grand Hotel in Baker City, the Board continued their work. Speaking with regional sustainability planners, they learned how historical preservation is at the heart of sustainability planning.

Fun fact: Over 100 Baker City buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.

While visiting sites like the underground tunnels, the Board saw how locally sourced and recycled materials are incorporated into historical buildings during preservation projects. They learned about the money energy retrofits save as well as the local employment they engender – all while preserving some of Oregon’s most amazing gems east of the Cascades.

Baker City’s emphasis on preservation has paid off because tourism is one of its largest industries. With its colorful history, Victorian-style houses, and Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, Baker City is a site to see!

Kate Brown: Postal Service Makes OR Vote-by-Mail Successful

Published on September 8, 2011 in Elections, Headlines, Press Releases, Road Trips, Secretary Brown, Social Media and Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown spent her Labor Day weekend traveling to Washington D.C. where she attended a conference with postal union leaders from around the world. In her remarks she illustrated why the best way to enfranchise Americans is not through the ballot box, but through the mail box. Without a vibrant, efficient and reliable postal service, Vote By Mail would not be the resounding success that it is.

Pictures from Campus(es)

Published on October 22, 2010 in Road Trips and Secretary Brown. 0 Comments

Dear Oregonians,

This last week, I was invited by the Oregon Student Association, and its partners in the Vote or Vote coalition, to visit the campuses of PSU, PCC Sylvania and Mount Hood Community College in order to promote voter registration before the October 12th deadline. I was once again blown away and inspired by the unbelievable work being done by these dedicated students to get their peers registered to vote.

Part of my visit consisted of visiting classrooms for “class raps.” The message I wanted to convey to the mixture of young and older voters is simple: This election is going to have a lasting effect on issues that impact them as students; things like funding for higher education and access to student loans. From City Council elections to those running for office in Washington, D.C. their vote is critically meaningful and if they choose not to use it, they are depending on the rest of us to make decisions for them.

Clearly, Oregon’s students are getting the message. OSA registered 18,405 people to vote from June of this year up to the October 12 deadline. Add that to the 2,231 they registered for the primary and you’ve got 20,636 people registered for the 2010 General Election.

It is now too late to register to vote in this November’s election, but if you or someone you know wants to get registered for future elections, jump over to Oregonvotes.org and get registered online!

I want to thank the OSA for having me and for all of the hard work they and the countless other voter registration organizations did to make sure that every eligible Oregonian has the chance to vote this November.

Sincerely,

Kate Brown

Secretary of State Kate Brown Goes to Washington (Again)

Published on September 15, 2010 in Elections, Road Trips, Secretary Brown and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

This time to testify before the Postal Regulatory Commission about the Postal Service’s proposed service reduction.

In these tough economic times and with Postal Service revenue shrinking, the USPS is proposing to cut a day of service in order to help fix some of the holes in its budget. As a Vote-By-Mail State, the State of Oregon relies a great deal on the USPS to deliver and receive ballots and thus has a major stake in any changes that may take place. Simply put, a reduction in Service will adversely affect Oregonian voters, particularly in our rural counties.

Audio of Secretary of State’s testimony can be found here.

OPB’s Chris Lehman wrote a short story about Secretary Brown’s trip and the reasoning behind Oregon (and Washington) elections officials opposition to the proposal.

Vote By Mail Tour Pictures

Published on May 13, 2010 in Elections, Road Trips, Secretary Brown and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: .

The Vote By Mail tour is wrapping up and there is lots to talk about. But before we get our thoughts up on this blog, I wanted to share some pictures from the tour.

Enjoy!

Continue reading ‘Vote By Mail Tour Pictures’

Tweets From the Road

Published on May 11, 2010 in Road Trips, Secretary Brown and Social Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Secretary of State Kate Brown is on the road, talking to county clerks, legislators, county commissioners, and local media about the Vote By Mail system in Oregon. I have been tweeting today and will continue tomorrow from a few things we’re doing in Bend. You can follow right here, just check out the widget below!

“Are you registered to Vote? At your current address?”

Published on April 27, 2010 in Elections and Road Trips. 0 Comments

This was the major question on the University of Oregon’s campus this afternoon as OSPIRG members braved the inclimate weather in a last ditch attempt to register voters before today’s 5:00pm registration deadline. Volunteers set up a table with a full assortment of registration cards as well as a laptop with Internet access pointed to our online voter registration system.

Today’s push caps a 2-week effort by voter registration organizations on campus to engage student voters ahead of Oregon’s May Primary election.

The Oregon Student Association, another student group registering students on campus, has been conducting ‘class raps.’ These raps send OSA volunteers into classrooms to deliver a short presentation to students on how elections may affect them, and then offer them the opportunity to register to vote. Often the classrooms are chosen for their student count and class level to get the greatest impact.

OSA has also been holding special events on campus. The Floats and Votes event offered students Rootbeer floats and then gave them the chance to get regsitered,

OSA tells me that along with the ASUO, they have registered nearly 700 students ahead of today’s deadline.

Groups on campus have found the new online voter registration tool useful, especially since they can promote voter registration easily over social networking sites like Facebook. One volunteer told me, “Before, we sent emails out to our member list reminding them to get registered. Now, we can post a direct link to the online voter registration system on Facebook. Then our members can post the link as well and it gets out to way more people.”

The good news/bad news from today’s push was that only a handful of students registered to vote in front of the EMU; 95% of them were already registered.

Are you registered to vote? You can check here.

If not, you can get registered NOW and it’s easy. Just head over to our Online Voter Registration system and take care of it.

Secretary of State Brown at the Pacific Coast Collaborative conference

Published on February 17, 2010 in Road Trips and Secretary Brown. 0 Comments Tags: .

Vancouver, British Columbia is the home of a little event called the 2010 Olympics. On the 12th of February, Vancouver also hosted the latest convening of the Pacific Coast Collaborative conference. The conference featured Govs. Schwarzenegger or California and Gregoire of Washington, Premier of British Columbia Gordon Campbell and filling in for Governor Kulongoski, our very own Secretary of State Kate Brown!

Below is a video of the press conference, which followed the discussions. For Secretary of State Brown’s statements, you’ll have to fast forward to the 6:24 mark.

Here are links to parts: 1, 2 and 4 as well.

The Secretary was honored to be able to come together with the Pacific Coast’s most prominent leaders to discuss the how the entire Pacific Coast can come together to solve the most pressing environmental issues of the future.

Oregon Student Association Registration Tours

Published on January 6, 2010 in Elections, Road Trips and Secretary Brown. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This is a guest entry from Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown

Today I was lucky enough to be invited by the Oregon Student Association to their press conference in which they announced that they had registered a whopping 14,272 students to vote in just 3 months!

With this incredible accomplishment in mind, I want to share a little bit of what I experience on Monday and Tuesday during this tour of seven of Oregon’s university campuses: PCC Sylvania, PCC Casdcade, Mt. Hood Community College, Portland State University, University of Oregon, Oregon State  and Lane Community College.

The first thing I learned is that the students in this state are not sitting idly by while decisions are made in Salem. These students are showing us what civic engagement is all about.

And you should have seen them! Despite the cold and rainy weather, students were out on the streets of Eugene, Corvallis and Portland, fearlessly engaging their peers. Sometimes even after they had said no, or had walked right past without saying a thing.

They understand that sometimes voter registration comes one person at a time, but that each person they register could be the deciding vote. As someone who won her first race by 7 votes, I let them know just how important each and every voter they registered is, and I have to admit, I got caught up in their enthusiasm.

I was originally asked by the Student Association to talk about the role of students in the voting process during a set of ‘class raps’. We had so much fun with our scheduled raps, which sometimes had as many as 500 students in attendance, that we started up a series of ‘Guerilla Raps’, which were class raps in classrooms where we weren’t scheduled to speak. OSA approached professors and asked for permission and we launched right in. It was a great way to reach out to even more students before the registration deadline.

I also got an opportunity to help the students by hitting the streets and registering voters. We came across all kinds of students from all kinds of backgrounds including a couple of 17 year-olds taking advantage of a recent development in Oregon’s voting law, which allows 17 year-old Oregonians to register to vote in the election following their 18th birthday.

I walked away from the two day tour with a tremendous respect for the students in our great state. I saw an amazing level of dedication from those who took their time out of their busy schedules to volunteer. These volunteers are a credit to our state and will insure that the health of our democracy remains strong for another generation. I also came away with a sense that young people are paying attention to the world around them and that sometimes all it takes is their peers giving them information and they will respond.

I want to thank the Oregon Student Association for this opportunity and congratulate them on a tremendous job well done!

Kate Brown is the Oregon Secretary of State