HB 3270 Moves to Senate

Wasteful, Ineffective "Placebo" Election Audit Moves to Senate

Oregon voters need an election verification law to make sure our machine-tallied election results correctly reflect the will of the people. Without such a law, Oregon voters must continue to depend on proprietary “trade secret” software created by private corporations to determine our election outcomes.

The Oregon House passed an election verification bill, HB 3270, and the bill is now in the Senate. Unfortunately, the bill now proposes to audit only a small percentage of precincts. This “audit of precincts” method now in HB 3270 cannot verify the outcomes of statewide election results. The method could not verify the outcomes for President, U.S. Senator, Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, or statewide ballots measures before certification. The law also cannot be used to trigger a full hand count or challenge election results. The "audit of precincts" method is no more than a placebo for election verification. We find no merit in a law which leaves Oregon voters without any independent basis for confidence in the outcome of our elections. Such a law will waste taxpayers’ money and will use County Clerks’ time without enhancing election integrity.

After years of study, the Oregon Voter Rights Coalition has found that the most efficient and effective verification for Oregon is to randomly sample paper ballots statewide to reveal whether the statewide machine-tallied election outcomes are correct. The method is also an effective trigger for a full hand recount or to challenge election results. Furthermore, a statewide sample would also cost far less and impose less burden on the County Clerks than the "audit of precincts" method. For additional information, read:

Overview of the 2 methods (pdf file)

Side-by-side comparison of the 2 methods (pdf file)

Pros and Cons of the 2 methods (pdf file)

Fiscal Summary (Word doc)

We worked diligently to alert the members of the Senate Rules Committee to replace the placebo "audit of precincts" method with a "sample of ballots" method that would provide citizens with the crucial verification of election outcomes they need. Unfortunately, late on Thursday, June 21, the Senate Rules Committee passed HB 3270 (with the ineffective "audit of precincts") on to the full Senate. We urge all Senators to vote NO on HB 3270.