Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read — a state elected official responsible for running elections — swung through Central Oregon this week to meet with high school students, local and state politicians, elections officials and local media. In an interview with the Source Tuesday morning, Read discussed campaign finance reform, election integrity, his pushback to federal legislation seeking to toughen voter eligibility laws and his decision to weigh in on the race for Deschutes County Commission.
This year includes high-profile elections across the federal, state and local levels: midterm elections could sway power in Congress, Gov. Tina Kotek is looking to defend her post while a slate of 15 candidates run for four different seats on the newly expanded Deschutes County Board of County Commissioners. Several Bend City Council seats — including the mayor — are also on the ballot in November.
Read urged people to vote.
“There are a lot of people who have sacrificed a whole lot to give us this right to vote, to hold politicians and government accountable,” Read said. “We’re better, we’re stronger when more people participate, and we shouldn’t take any of this for granted.”
Read lives in Beaverton, so he won’t be able to vote in Deschutes County elections. But he decided to weigh in anyway by endorsing Jamie Collins in the race for Deschutes County Commissioner Position 1. Collins, a Democrat, is attempting to unseat Tony DeBone, a Republican and longtime incumbent from south Deschutes County.
Read, a Democrat who served in the legislature and as state treasurer, told the Source he’s stayed away from endorsing candidates for statewide office since becoming secretary of state in 2025, but he feels comfortable doing so in local races.
He cited Collins’ experience with the U.S. Coast Guard and in incident command.
“As presumptuous as it is for a person who doesn’t live in this community, looking at the challenges of a growing community and a growing commission, I think that’s the sort of outlook and attributes that are really going to be advantageous to people in Deschutes County. I’m excited to be part of his team,” Read said. He planned to attend a campaign event with Collins Tuesday evening.
Collins — who has raised about $120,000, more money than any other county commission candidate — is one of several who have benefitted from large contributions up to $20,000 pouring into this year’s races. It comes as campaign finance reform advocates decry a recently passed bill they say will gut spending limits supported by voters in a ballot measure in 2020.
Read, who pushed for the legislation, has said it’s necessary to give his office the time and funding to overhaul the state’s campaign finance system in a timely manner by fixing a bill full of “inconsistencies and contradictions.”
The bill gives Read until 2031 to implement reforms requiring more transparency around the original source of campaign donations.
“I understand some of the criticisms,” Read said. “But our obligation is to implement current law. We will do that. We’re excited about bringing the rigor and the attention to detail and the consistency that’s going to require. If there turn out to be loopholes, we will fix them. We will bring the legislation to close those.”
Read and other Oregon Democrats are locked in another fight over the SAVE America Act, an attempt by the Trump Administration to require proof of citizenship to register to vote and a photo ID while voting. Democrats say it will suppress millions of eligible voters and muck up the elections process.
“It’s a bad idea,” Read told the Source. “It is unnecessary, expensive — it’s just serving to put barriers in between Oregonians and ballots. We run secure and accurate and fair elections in Oregon.”
Oregon’s Motor Voter Act automatically registers people to vote when they get a driver’s license or state ID card. Last year, the state discovered 1,600 of Oregon’s 3 million registered voters had been wrongly registered to vote.
Read points to a 2020 analysis by the state’s Legislative Fiscal Office that found 38 counts of voter fraud among 61 million ballots over 20 years of voting.
In September, the Trump Administration sued Read’s office for refusing to turn over information about every voter in the state.
Meanwhile, officials like Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) have warned that recent changes to U.S. Postal Service mail collection and envelope postmarking could delay the process for mail-in voting. Read explained that because of new regional centers in Portland, mail from more than 50 miles away will take longer to be delivered. He advised sending ballots at least one week prior to the election, and making a choice “as soon as you’re comfortable.” Dropping your ballot in a county ballot box is a better way to make sure the vote is counted, Read said. If you have to mail the ballot and the election is only a few days away, take it to a post office and ask to have it hand postmarked, he said.
Related
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
