Statement on Elections Next Steps

Chair Smith

The May primary election results were officially certified on June 13 and we are grateful to all of the Clackamas County employees, elections staff, and temporary elections workers who helped accomplish that goal.

607 County employees worked in Elections, that number represents over 6,700 hours!

Moving forward, the County is 100% committed to minimizing the risk that an elections failure could happen again. I want to be transparent about what that means.

I have met with the Clerk and provided the County’s procurement and financial support to 1) select a new ballot printer, 2) upgrade outdated equipment to insure state-of-the-art systems are in place and 3) update necessary software.  It is also essential that quality control testing with printed ballots be substantially improved before future distribution.

All of this will be expedited so that our next election in August can be carried out without interruption. 

I also expect the Clerk to conduct a thorough review of her operations and decisions following the primary election, as well as her full cooperation with the audits requested by the Secretary of State.  I expect her findings to be presented to the full Board of County Commissioners.