Record number of election complaints in OR

Local election complaints on hold

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By KYLE ODEGARD
Corvallis Gazette-Times reporter

Four local election complaints are essentially on hold, as the state is dealing with a record number of complaints, according to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office.

“Within the next couple of months, we hope we’ll be able to get caught up with things,” said Norma Buckno, compliance specialist with the elections division. “We’re hoping.”

The local election complaints are against:

• The city of Corvallis, for allegedly using its newsletter and Web site to advocate in favor of the “cell phone tax,” which failed in September

• Benton County, for allegedly improperly promoting its law enforcement and health services levy, which failed in November.

• Former sheriff candidate Jack Burright (no information on the file can be released because the complaint alleges a crime)

• Sheriff Diana Simpson, for allegedly not hiring a Burright supporter

“The allegations that have been made, we feel confident the county will be vindicated in the end. If it’s a delayed process, it’s just delayed,” said Phillip Hudspeth, Benton County public information officer.

The Secretary of State’s Office received 2,600 complaints for 2006, and about 1,600 were filed after October.

Four people in the office’s elections division are handling all of those, along with other duties.

“It kind of puts the ones we’re already working on behind,” Buckno said. “Once we do the initial processing on these complaints, we’ll be able to get back to the others.”

About 1,300 of the new complaints deal with more mundane matters such as signature verification and duplicate voting. Many of those came from a push to standardize processes throughout the state.

“It may not be more problems. It’s just more are coming our way because everybody is handling it more consistently,” Buckno said.

The previous high number of complaints was about 1,200 in 2004, she added.