By JULIA SHUMWAY/Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Oregon’s state elections office has shut down its phone lines for the day because of a deluge of threatening calls from out-of-state callers sharing misinformation about Republican President Donald Trump, who chose not to submit a statement to the state-issued Voters’ Pamphlet.
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, are on ballots that began arriving in Oregon voters’ mailboxes this week. They’re also included in a list of candidates on page 26 in the Voters’ Pamphlet but are marked with an asterisk because they didn’t submit a statement to be printed in the pamphlet.
While Trump does not have a statement in the pamphlet, that is not because of any Oregon official. Trump’s own campaign decided not to submit a statement for the pamphlet, which is sent out to voters throughout the state. Trump also didn’t submit a statement for the Republican primary in May.
The Secretary of State’s Office didn’t identify the callers but the omission of a Trump statement in the pamphlet caught the attention of right-wing misinformation spreaders, including the X account “Libs of TikTok,” which posted a video of someone flipping through the pamphlet that has been retweeted more than 11,000 times. Other social media accounts shared false claims that Trump and Vance were “removed from the election website,” calling it “election interference” and sharing the Elections Division phone number.
The online version of the Voters’ Pamphlet has a giant warning box that states that candidates are not required to file statements and only candidates who submitted statements will appear on the online menu — but all candidates will appear on the ballot.
A spokesperson for the Secretary of State’s Office said the office is currently planning to close its phone lines just on Thursday, but that may change. Oregon voters with questions can contact the office by email at elections.sos@sos.oregon.gov or call and leave a voicemail. They can also get in touch with their own local county clerk’s office.
“Oregonians who need assistance will now have to wait because some individuals operating in bad faith are misleading people online,” Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said in a statement. “We need to do more as a country to discourage this kind of behavior. Spreading rumors and false claims of election interference does nothing to help Oregonians.”
Callers shared death threats and offensive words. One two-minute voicemail shared by the office included at least two threats and countless vulgarities.
Oregon lawmakers passed a law in 2022 to criminalize harassing election workers. Anyone who commits that crime can face up to 364 days in prison and a $6,250 fine. A spokesperson said the office is sharing all threats with law enforcement.
Election officials in Oregon and around the country have faced increased harassment since the 2020 election, which Trump and his supporters falsely claimed was stolen. In Arizona, an epicenter of election misinformation, an Iowa man was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison this spring for violent threats against Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman and at least three men from different states have been indicted for threatening Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer. Both Hickman, who oversees Election Day voting, and Richer, who runs the county elections division and early voting, are Republicans.
More evidence that supporters of the orange nightmare are completely detached from reality and from factual information.