GOP asks county to call for a statewide voter rolls audit
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, December 11th, 2024 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
UMATILLA COUNTY – The cloud over election integrity in Oregon in the November election resulting from errors made in the Motor Voter Registration system is causing concern. The Umatilla County Republican Central Committee is calling for the Board of Commissioners to ask Gov. Tina Kotek and Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade to conduct a full audit of the voter rolls in the state by an independent party.
Klaus Hoehna, the newly-elected chair of the county Republicans, informed the commissioners of this request in a letter he delivered to them Monday. Here is that letter in full:
To: Umatilla County Commissioners: Cindy Timmons
John Shafer
Dan Dorran
From: Klaus Hoehna, Chairman
Umatilla County Republican Central Committee
Dear Commissioners,
On October 1, 2024, the Umatilla County Elections Department was invited and came to our monthly Umatilla County Republican Central Committee meeting in Pendleton. Stephen Craigen was introduced by Dan Lonai. Stephen shared key dates coming up for the 2024 election. Stephen was able to shed light on the recent election integrity issue identified by the Oregon Secretary of State. Evidently in the State of Oregon there were 1,259 cases of ineligible people voting. Of those, Umatilla County had 32 cases under investigation. This clearly illustrates that non-eligible voters were casting votes. From what I understand, the Oregon DMV motor voter program has allowed illegal ballots to be cast. I am not clear if there were additional findings of non-eligible voters casting votes in Oregon after October 1st.
These election integrity issues are very serious and need the full attention of our Oregon Legislature, Secretary of State and the Governor. Our Central Committee does not have any assurance or confidence that our Secretary of State is taking a proactive initiative to fully audit and clean Oregon’s voter rolls. We obviously have a problem with our current process, namely one being no proof of is required to demonstrate United States citizenship besides the voter registration form asking…”Are you a US citizen?” From what I have read, the Oregon governor did “pause” automatic motor voter registration pending an audit. However, there seems to be no definitive plans to mandate the proof of United States citizenship of registered voters.
December 12th is the date the 2024 Election is required to be certified both by Umatilla County and the State of Oregon. Other counties, such as Washington County, are asking their commissioners to not certify the election and have asked for two options be considered: 1) Completely clean the voter rolls and re-run the election or, 2) Remove all ballots of individuals of unknown status and recount the remaining ballots. We have every confidence in our Umatilla County Elections staff that they are extremely thorough in ensuring ballot processing is accomplished with absolute integrity. Stephen Craigen stated in our October 1st meeting that the 32 cases of ineligible voters would be thoroughly examined and would be corrected. We trust this has happened.
In view of all ineligible voting cases throughout the state, we would respectfully ask that the Umatilla County Commissioners petition the Governor and Secretary of State to conduct a full and complete independent audit of all the voter rolls in Oregon. Until this is accomplished, Oregon voters will continue to have the ‘cloud’ of potential fraud and unfair elections hanging over their heads. As citizens, we want to be assured our elections are transparent, fair and free of fraud. This result suggests our voter rolls need cleaned up immediately! Your careful consideration of our request is appreciated.
Sincerely,
Klaus J. Hoehna, Chairman Umatilla County Republican Party Central Committee
