Program Sponsors:
Cesie and Tom Scheuermann
"We are pleased to sponsor this program, in recognition of and gratitude for, Secretary Read and his team, and the County Clerks and their staffs and volunteers in all 36 Oregon counties, who work tirelessly to ensure that Oregon voters can participate in free, secure, and fair elections in communities across our state."
The constitutional right of American states to control elections is under attack from the US government. Fortunately, for now SCOTUS has put the brakes on that. However its likely the administration will continue to demand that states hand over sensitive voter information, and that it will continue trying to limit our Civil Rights with new executive orders and with threats of lawsuits.
We will hear more about these threats from Secretary Read, our chief elections officer, and how he plans on safeguarding Oregon's state controlled voting system from further Federal attacks and manipulation. Here are actions that he has implemented so far:
Shortly after taking office in 2024, Secretary Read announced on social media that he had begun traveling to each county in the state to meet with their county clerks and election officials to ascertain their preparedness for upcoming elections.
Recently, Secretary Read advocated for an emergency state funding increase. The legislature passed emergency funding of $1.25 million of which $618,000 will pay for additional drop box locations and expenses related to an anticipated increase in drop box usage. An additional $154,000 will allow the Secretary of State's office to provide all Oregon voters access to BallotTrax, an opt-in service that gives voters current updates on the status of their ballot. BallotTrax is widely popular in five counties. The remaining $480,000 will allow counties to send updated voter notification cards to inactive voters to continue the process of clearing old data from the inactive voter list.
Speaker
Tobias Read, OR Secretary of State
Tobias Read has been Oregon's Secreatry of State since 2024. As such, his main responsibility includes the following: he is Auditor of Public Accounts, Chief Elections Officer, and Administrator of Public Records.
Mr. Read was born in Montana and grew up in Boise, Idaho. Eventually he attended and graduated from Willamette University with a degree in politics and economics. Subsequently he earned an MBA from U of Washington in 2003.
His public service career began as a state Representative from 2007 to 2016 and eventually as elected Speaker Pro Tempore in 2015. He won election as State Treasurer in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020.
Event Details:
Doors open at 11:30
Program starts at 12:00
