Show Notes: The Art of The McDeal

Oregon Allows Anyone To Vote Via Overseas Portal

https://thefederalist.com/2024/10/22/oregons-voting-portal-appears-to-let-anyone-cast-an-overseas-voters-ballot-with-just-his-name-and-birthday/

Oregon’s voting portal lets anyone log into an Oregon resident’s voter account using only his name and birthday — and once logged into a voter’s account, it appears that a bad actor could use the online tool to cast the ballots of overseas voters by email. For that matter, the system doesn’t appear to protect against someone fraudulently casting ballots in the names of domestic voters by claiming to be overseas.

Oregon’s online elections portal, “MyVote,” lets anyone access residents’ registration information by entering a resident’s first and last name and birthday — which are often available online. From there, a fraudster could hypothetically mark a resident’s ballot, claim he is an overseas voter, and then submit the resident’s marked ballot by fax or email, according to whistleblower Cara Tapken, an Oregon resident, who showed The Federalist how the portal works.

The Federalist story is pretty incredible: wide open for fraud.

“This tool is supposed to be limited to overseas or disabled voters, and “all other voters should use the printed ballots received directly from their county elections office,” the website reads, according to Tapken. But the same online portal allows a person to claim overseas status if he wants to potentially submit a ballot by fax or email. The Federalist asked Laura Kerns, communications director for the secretary of state’s office, how Oregon verifies the overseas status of those who use the portal claiming to be overseas voters and submit ballots via fax or email — and whether Oregon even attempts verification — but she failed to provide an answer.”

Oregon is hand waving while not addressing the questions.

“However, Kerns offered no explanation for the vulnerabilities Tapken described to The Federalist and declined to respond directly to The Federalist’s questions about how the state verifies claims that a person is an eligible overseas voter. Rather, the only safeguards she pointed to were the fact that falsely submitting a ballot is illegal”

Oregon’s standard to prove identity:

Oregon voter registration cards only require a driver’s license number, the last four digits of one’s Social Security number, or another form of ID such as a bank statement or utility bill. A Utility bill.