Oregon closes election phone line due to out-of-state misinformation

The Oregon secretary of state said it temporarily shut down an election phone line because the “system was overwhelmed” by out-of-state misinformation. 

The office said Thursday in a press release that the proliferation of phone calls occurred due to conspiracy theories spreading online, claiming the state’s election officials kept former President Trump out of Oregon’s voter pamphlet. Trump’s campaign decided not to submit a statement to the Oregon voters’ pamphlet. The GOP nominee also did not send a statement during the party’s primary in May. 

Earlier this week, the Oregon Republican Party released a statement, explaining the absence of the campaign statement. 

“Many people are wondering why no campaign statement from President Donald J. Trump was included in the Oregon Voters’ Guide which arrived in Oregonians’ mailboxes this week,” the party said in an Oct. 10 statement. “The decision not to submit a statement was made by the Trump campaign earlier this year.” 

“The decision to close the line comes just days after a popular right-wing account Libs of TikTok shared a video of a person flipping through the pamphlet along with some screenshots of Trump not being there.

“Oregon voter pamphlets do not include Donald Trump. He also is not listed on the Oregon State Government website under presidential candidates,” the account with more than 3.5 million followers on the social platform X wrote. “What’s going on?” 

X attached a community note on the post that said the former president “did not submit an optional statement or pay the required $3,500 for candidates to appear in the state’s pamphlet.” 

In Oregon, it is a crime to threaten or harass an election worker. 

“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 (D) 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.”