Question #1: Senator Brown's Response

Oregon’s vote by mail system with its built in paper trail and signature verification is one of the best in the country. Because of this system, we have not had the problems that other states have seen. However, Oregon’s system is not as secure as it can be.

We have in place a four level system of checks that includes state certification, testing that is conducted by the county clerks (pursuant to administrative rule the county clerks must run these checks 1 week before the election and the morning of election day and this process can be publicly observed.) After the election is complete, the county clerks run the test again.

In addition, HB 3270, a bill that I carried on the Senate floor, requires the ballots for three races in randomly selected precincts in each county be counted by hand. These hand counts are then compared to the machine count. If the vote is less than 1/5 of 1% then an automatic recount is triggered. Finally, if a candidate or ballot measure campaign has concerns about the outcome, the campaign can pay for a recount.