'Significant ethical concerns': Oregon Republicans stoke voter fraud claims

Three Oregon Republicans running to control the state’s elections have all stoked false claims of voter fraud and indicated they want to end Oregon’s decades-long tradition of running elections by mail.

State Sen. Dennis Linthicum, Beaverton real estate broker Brent Barker and Salem business analyst Tim McCloud are vying for their party’s nomination for secretary of state, an open position since appointed Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade chose not to seek a full term. It’s the only statewide office Republicans have won this century: Dennis Richardson was elected in 2016 and served until his death in 2019.

Barker participated in an interview. McCloud answered a questionnaire sent to all candidates but didn’t respond to interview requests. Linthicum did neither.

Brent Barker

Barker placed fourth in the seven-way nonpartisan primary for commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries in 2022 and was the first Republican to enter the race for secretary of state this year. His platform includes clearing the state’s voter rolls and forcing all voters to register anew to vote.

“It’s best if we just start from zero and clean it up, much less expensive, and start over again,” he said.

Barker also wants to eliminate mail elections and require most voters to cast their ballots in person, with exceptions for military voters and “aged populations.” He said he wanted to make Election Day a state holiday, giving government employees the day off and giving private employers tax credits if they gave their employees the day off. The secretary of state lacks the power to make any of those changes without actions by the Legislature or voters.

He said he wanted to increase post-election audits, though county clerks and the secretary of state already conduct routine audits of equipment and ballots. Barker couldn’t say what would be different under his command.

“I believe that these clerks that you’re alluding to, with all good intent, believe that they have the best information but there’s a whole group of Oregonians that do not believe that their voice is being heard and more importantly, they feel that like their their voice is being disenfranchised,” he said.

He has not talked with county clerks about how they run elections or toured election offices, though he said he would consider doing so. Barker said he supports new campaign finance limits passed by the Legislature this year and voted for Measure 113, the anti-walkout constitutional amendment that cost Linthicum and nine other senators their jobs.

When it comes to agencies and state programs to audit, Barker said he’ll look first at agencies that appear to be noncompliant with the Legislature’s wishes.

“The Legislature sets standards,” he said. “You just have to make sure the Legislature’s wishes are being fulfilled, regardless of the department. Those wishes must be fulfilled.”

Dennis Linthicum

Linthicum, 68, is one of 10 Republican senators barred from running for another term because he participated in a six-week quorum-denying walkout to protest bills on abortion, transgender health care and gun control. He recruited his wife, Diane, to run in his stead in the southern Oregon Senate district this year.

During his two terms in the Senate, Linthicum has consistently been one of the furthest-right members of the Republican caucus. He has introduced multiple unsuccessful bills to ban abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, prohibit businesses or the government from requiring employees to receive COVID vaccines and limit schools’ abilities to require students receive routine childhood immunizations.

Linthicum has been a plaintiff in several unsuccessful state and federal lawsuits challenging how the state handled the COVID pandemic and elections. A federal judge tossed one of those lawsuits last summer, saying that “generalized grievances” from Linthicum and other Republicans didn’t give them standing to sue in a case that sought to end Oregon’s vote-by-mail system and electronic tabulation of ballots.

In a February 2023 constituent newsletter, Linthicum described Oregon’s vote-by-mail system as “the gold-standard for election engineering” and accused Democrats of ramping up a “progressive freeway to unparalleled voter fraud” by passing laws meant to expand voter access, including allowing late-arriving ballots to be counted if they’re postmarked by Election Day and expanding online voter registration to people without state-issued IDs.

In a January newsletter, he also claimed that “people, not necessarily citizens, can vote using a centralized non-transparent black box using mail-in ballots with nothing but a signature to validate the authenticity of the vote.” In fact, all voters must attest to being a citizen to register to vote.

His platform for secretary of state includes advocating to end mail voting and require voters to vote in person at local precincts while presenting a photo ID. He voted against the campaign finance limit law passed this year that he would have to implement as secretary of state.

Most of the more than $200,000 Linthicum has raised during this election came in the form of legal expenses for his challenge to his disqualification as senator, which were covered by a fundraising committee to the tune of more than $165,000.

Tim McCloud

McCloud ran for governor in 2022, placing 10th in a Republican primary with 19 candidates. For the secretary of state’s race, he has not reported raising or spending any money, doesn’t have a campaign website and didn’t submit a statement for the state-issued voters’ pamphlet.

In response to a questionnaire sent to all candidates, he said his experience in business, as well as his four years serving on the Albany Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Commission and year on the Linn County Compensation Board give him the experience to lead the Secretary of State’s Office. He added that he has no ties to foreign or special interests and that would help him avoid conflicts of interest.

He said he would restore trust in the agency by addressing all outstanding complaints related to elections and “review(ing) the entire voter system for potential vulnerabilities.” McCloud blamed former secretaries of state Shemia Fagan and Kate Brown for having “significant ethical concerns,” though he didn’t elaborate on his complaints against Brown, who went on to serve as governor from 2015 to 2023.

McCloud said he intended to end the office’s use of artificial intelligence to help flag threats and election misinformation posted online. He also said he wanted to open in-person voting centers, which he described as a common-sense measure to secure the election process.

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