By SAM STITES/Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — The state’s top elections official wants voters to know Oregon is doing everything possible to ensure the security of the state’s elections by working with county and federal agencies.
“There was some polling that took place a couple weeks ago that said 43 percent of the public don’t think elections administrators are doing anything to secure our elections,” said Steve Trout, state elections director. “That’s the farthest thing from the truth.”
Trout addressed Oregon’s election security at a news conference Tuesday with U.S. Attorney Billy Williams and Renn Cannon, Oregon FBI special agent in charge. They reviewed the work of Oregon’s Threat Information Gathering and Elections Resources, started a year ago to help ensure Oregon elections security.
Election security has become a white-hot political topic in the wake of Iowa’s caucus process in the nation’s first presidential primary. Results ordinarily announced after the caucuses on Monday night were delayed because of counting issues. There was no initial indication of hacking or other intrusions.
Cannon said Tuesday there is a growing sophistication of cyber threats such as ransomware attacks like that of the recent breach on Tillamook County’s web systems. That left county officials without information technology for nearly two weeks while authorities negotiate with the attackers. Trout said the attack didn’t affect voter registration systems or databases in Tillamook County because of quick action to deactivate the connection to the statewide system.
Such successes have Trout, Cannon and Williams feeling confident the state’s elections system is secure.
Trout couldn’t point to new threats to Oregon’s electoral process that have emerged since the 2018 election. Instead, he said, one of the most acute dangers for voters in 2020 is
misinformation.
“It also falls upon all of us individually as informed voters to be able to help make sure our elections are secure. We have to protect our democracy by not falling for misinformation or
disinformation, looking at the facts and asking questions,” he said.
The briefing preceded a symposium scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 5, in Salem where county elections officials and candidates can learn about cyber threats and how to combat disinformation on social media.
The Oregon Capital Bureau in Salem is staffed by reporters from EO Media and Pamplin Media Group and provides state government and political news to their newspapers and media around Oregon, including YachatsNews.com
