UPDATE: The shortened hyperlink that redirected voters to a progressive website, rather than to Multnomah County's "track your ballot" process, has been removed.
Original story below:
An insert that comes with every Multnomah County ballot includes a link that could redirect voters to a progressive website. The correct link is case sensitive. If voters use only lowercase, they will end up on a site not affiliated with Multnomah County Elections.
“We’re doing everything we can to get this fixed,” said Tim Scott, director of Multnomah County Elections.
Scott said his office has received numerous complaints and questions about the insert, which encourages voters to sign up to “Track Your Ballot”.
The flier includes the Bitly link: bit.ly/MultCoTrackYourBallot. Bitly is a URL shortening service.
Voters who type lowercase letters for the link are re-directed to VoteWithMe.us, a website created by the nonprofit The New Data Project.
On its website, VoteWithMe claims it is not associated with any party or campaign, but the progressive organization explains it hopes to move control of the House from red to blue during the midterm elections, “achieving a Democratic House majority.”
“We did not create it and had nothing to do with it,” wrote Will Friedman of VoteWithMe in an email to KGW.
Multnomah County Elections has reached out to Bitly to see if the case sensitive link can be fixed so voters aren’t redirected to the progressive site, not affiliate with county elections.
“It was something we shouldn’t have done,” said Scott. “We should not have used Bitly.”
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