PORTLAND, Ore. — With Oregon's election day less than two months away, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan held an event at the Multnomah County Library in Southeast Portland on Tuesday to mark National Voter Registration Day.
"People in Oregon can do that easily at Oregonvotes.gov," Fagan said. "It literally takes less than ninety seconds just to go on, update registration or check registration."
According to Fagan's website, more than 15,000 Oregonians have registered to vote in the last month. Fagan said she's also been visiting counties throughout the state and speaking with clerks about recent the influx in public records requests.
"A small group of people making constant requests that are highly technical," Fagan said. "Typically driven by conspiracy theories surrounding the 2020 election."
Fagan said these requests have been a huge strain on the system and there is a plan to mitigate the burden.
"We're working with the legislature to request a public records officer within the Secretary of State's office (who) they can send those election related requests to, so we can take that burden off the county clerks," Fagan said.
When it comes to election worker safety, Fagan said she's thankful the legislature passed the bipartisan election worker safety act in the last session.
"By making it a crime to harass or intimidate election workers in Oregon, because we did see some threats — particularly down in Jackson County but all over the state," Fagan added.
Fagan said she wants to remind everyone that Oregon elections are safe and secure. The clerks are trained in forensic hand writing analysis and every single signature on every single envelope is checked.