Secretary of State Brown: Tampering Involved Six Ballots

WWeek:

<img src="http://www.wweek.com/portland/imgs/media.images/8279/murmurs_katebrown.t2.jpg"/>

Secretary of State Kate Brown this afternoon released a statement regarding the continuing investigation into alleged ballot tampering by a Clackamas County elections worker. Brown introduced two new pieces of information: first, contrary to reports issued yesterday, elections officials plan to include results from altered ballots if possible. Second, Brown upped the number of ballots that may have been altered from two to six. 

Here is what Brown said:

“To date, Clackamas County, under supervision of my elections monitors, has identified six ballots that were potentially altered by the accused temporary county elections employee. The total number of ballots potentially affected is still under investigation by the Department of Justice. For all potentially altered ballots, Clackamas County elections officials will determine whether or not the original voter intent can be established. If the original voter intent can be established, the ballot will be counted to reflect what the original voter marked. Voter intent will be determined by Clackamas County officials, but will be overseen by my two elections monitors, Brenda Bayes and Fred Neal who bring a combined 30 years of election experience. This is different information than was reported in the media yesterday. Media reported that Clackamas County officials shared that all potentially altered ballots would not be counted. This was inaccurate."

The Oregon Department of Justice, which is conducting a criminal investigation into the matter, still has not released any information about the number of ballots involved or whether the suspect in the case, Deanna Swenson, was acting alone. Brown's statement appears to be at odds with Swenson's claim yesterday in a brief interview with WW that only two ballots were involved.

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