County clerk: 2025 redistricting would ‘pose significant risks to the integrity of elections’

Adopting a redistricting proposal this year could “pose significant risks to the integrity of elections in Lane County.” Speaking at the July 26 Charter Review Committee meeting:

Dena Dawson (Lane County clerk): I’ve had a chance to review the proposal. Just a day or so ago, I received it, and I just wanted to highlight a few areas that I do think merit attention.

[00:00:22] First off, the proposed involvement of the clerk’s office in this amendment is a shift from current practices in Lane County and as observed in other counties. In my now more than 18 years’ experience as an election administrator, election administrators receive the finished product of redistricting and then carry forth the changes. And as you know, our participation is currently limited to offering specialized insights on precincts, voter impacts and post-approval procedural steps.

[00:00:54] I think it’s important to note that as written the clerk would be responsible for adopting rules, and the drafting and adopting of rules is going to necessitate extensive research and preparation along with some significant resources from this office to administer the process.

[00:01:13] Additionally, the prospect of an additional redistricting effort in 2025 is particularly noteworthy. Such an endeavor would demand substantial and immediate resources from our office, and occurring amidst preparations for and the conduct of the 2024 presidential election. These efforts are further complicated by the May special district election, which is notably a really intricate administrative task requiring extensive coordination with multiple special districts and the development of a county voters’ pamphlet.

[00:01:48] I think it’s important to also note that there are anticipated fiscal voter and district impacts, including potential confusion and downstream effects with other districts. And I think it really just underscores the critical nature of the current resource limitations.

[00:02:04] I wanted to also point out that it’s really important to acknowledge that the secretary of state plans to introduce a new election management and voter registration system in the first quarter of 2025. And there’s also a possibility that our office will begin the daunting task of implementing ranked choice voting in 2025.

[00:02:24] I put together, I quickly put together kind of an unpolished chart, a timeline to be able to share some information about what is highlighted in the current proposal about the timeline and the clerk’s responsibilities and the actual functions that our office is carrying out in this timeline.

[00:02:45] So I’m quickly going to go over a couple… The deadline in the charter says by Dec. 3 of this year, the clerk has to initiate the process for individuals that can apply for the citizen redistricting commission. That would mean that I would have to start drafting rules and preparing for that now, and so that absolutely conflicts with the work that we’re doing to prepare for and conduct the presidential election.

[00:03:14] But Dec. 2, 2024 is the deadline for us to certify the presidential election. Dec. 2, 2024 is the first day that we begin a hand count of the presidential election audit, and Lane County is also a pilot county for a risk-limiting audit that will take place at that same time period.

[00:03:37] So staff will be conducting all post-election activities, audits, finalizing the election through mid-January. It really will be impossible to gain the subject matter expertise required to draft the rules and get them implemented to start this process by Dec. 3.

[00:03:56] Another conflicting timeline is Jan. 15 through basically March 15. The clerk would be responsible for notifying citizens and basically starting to accept and vet applications for committee members. And during this period, we’ll be coordinating with special districts for the preparation of the special district election.

[00:04:16] We will be administering hundreds of candidate filings, preparing the budget, working on the Board Of Property Tax Appeal (BOPTA) hearings, coordinating staffing for all of those hearings, and implementing that brand new voter registration system.

[00:04:30] March through June is when the board of county commissioners would be selecting the CRC members and there would likely be significant support required from the clerk’s office if we were responsible for coordinating the election or selection of those members. And during this period of time, we would be creating the special district ballots, creating the voter’s pamphlet, and still implementing that statewide voter registration system.

[00:05:00] There are a couple of other deadlines that are listed, but really what I did is administratively look at what was proposed and then look at the election schedule.

[00:05:10] Closing remark would be that introducing tasks outside of the normal scope of election management within the proposed timeline does pose significant risks to the integrity of elections in Lane County, and should you choose to move forward with it as written, I would respectfully just request and urge reconsideration of the timeline to better synchronize with the election calendar, and taking into consideration the implementation of that new election management and voter registration, as well as the potential option adoption of ranked choice voting.

[00:05:45] And I would be glad to participate when you’re building out the timeline and provide input. But those were a few of the items of note that I wanted to point out to the committee in hopes that you’d be able to make a better-informed decision about this process, so thank you.

[00:06:03] Morgan Munro (Charter Review Committee chair): Are you familiar with other districts or other areas that do a, like, a midpoint redistricting? Have you seen that before? Is that considered best practice?

[00:06:16] Dena Dawson (Lane County clerk): No. In my experience, I have been through two redistrictings in my career. I have never experienced a midpoint redistricting effort. And from an administrative standpoint, it’s really complicated work… It would not be considered best practice.

[00:06:35] John Q: The Charter Review Committee hears new tasks related to a proposed 2025 redistricting would “pose significant risks to the integrity of elections in Lane County.” The committee has set three more meetings, as it continues working towards an August 6 deadline: Monday, July 29 from 10 a.m. to noon, Tuesday from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., and Wednesday July 31 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

[00:07:00] All meetings will be in the commissioners’ conference room, 125 E. 8th Ave., and livestreamed. See the Lane County website for the links.