Sorting machine malfunctions temporarily slow ballot processing in Clackamas County - OPB

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A malfunctioning mail sorting machine has slowed ballot processing in Clackamas County this year. Employees are instead processing ballots by hand.

Gillian Flaccus / AP

A machine used to vet and sort ballots in Clackamas County has repeatedly jammed in recent days, slowing the county’s ability to wade through a mass of ballots flowing in ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.

But County Clerk Catherine McMullen told reporters Friday that the county hopes it has fixed the issue, after a technician flew in from out of state Thursday.

“The good news to report is that he has fixed the mail ballot sorter again,” McMullen said. “It has been repaired, and so we have been using it normally today.”

If the machine continues to work, McMullen predicted minimal impact on election results in Clackamas County as ballots continue to pour in. Election workers had processed around 12,000 ballots normally on Friday as of 2 p.m., and planned to work on Saturday to clear a backlog of nearly 50,000 ballots.

The picture offered Friday was more hopeful than Thursday’s message, when McMullen announced the county might have to resort to scanning ballots by hand in order to validate and sort them – a more time consuming process.

“The crux of the issue is that we are getting jams that make it difficult to process a large volume of ballots at any one time,” McMullen said Thursday “We are taking proactive measures to fix this and also working through the process to continue processing ballots even without the mail ballot sorter actively functioning.”

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Even using a hand scanning process, McMullen predicted the majority of Clackamas County ballots would be counted by the Friday after election day. With the county’s mail sorting machine back in working order, she expects any ballots received by Nov. 4 will be reflected in initial election results Nov. 5.

“That is what my goal is for every election: If you return your ballot, if it’s received in our office on Monday, then we’re able to include it” by election night, McMullen said.

Two years ago, misprinted ballots in Clackamas County caused significant delays to primary election results there. The situation helped lead voters to eject then-clerk Sherry Hall from office in favor of McMullen the same year.

Among other races, Clackamas County will have a major impact on the outcome of the 5th Congressional District, one of the tightest U.S. House races in the country. Clackamas County voters make up the single-largest bloc in the district, and the campaigns of both Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Democratic state Rep. Janelle Bynum said they were monitoring the issue.

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“It is critical that Clackamas County works to swiftly resolve any scanning machine issues,” Bynum said in a statement Friday. “Voters must continue to have faith in our elections process so their voices can be heard.”

Chavez-DeRemer, meanwhile, said in a statement she was “disappointed that counting has been delayed, since there were similar problems in 2022 that should’ve been fully addressed by now.” Chavez-DeRemer added she has “full confidence that the problem is being dealt with and all ballots will be counted in a fair and accurate manner.”

Clackamas County has used the malfunctioning mail sorting machine since 2016, and was already planning to replace it next year, McMullen said.

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The machine plays an important role in helping Oregon’s third-most populous county conduct elections. It can quickly scan the envelopes that ballots are sent in, taking a picture of the voter’s signature on the envelope before an election worker compares it with the signature on file. Once that is complete, the machine sorts the ballots between those deemed valid, and those where questions about a signature’s authenticity exist. Ballot envelopes are not opened as part of the process.

McMullen’s office is employing 130 temporary election workers this election, and stands ready to implement more than 20 hand scanners the office owns if the mail sorting machine breaks down again.

A technician with the company that supplied the machine, Runbeck, will remain available to county officials through Nov. 8, McMullen said.

OPB reporter Bryce Dole contributed to this story.

Tags: Election 2024, Clackamas County