After a disastrous primary election in Clackamas County, in which final results were delayed for weeks and condemnation from across the political spectrum rained down on embattled Clerk Sherry Hall, county leadership has announced steps it intends to take to ensure such a disaster does not happen again.
Clackamas County Chair Tootie Smith on Thursday announced a plan to ensure the blurry barcodes that derailed this year’s election would not be an issue in the future.
Smith says the county has committed funding to select a new ballot printer (Hall had already stated in previous media engagements that she would not use the previous printer, Moonlight BPO, ever again).
The county also plans to upgrade outdated equipment and buy new software, Smith said.
“It is also essential that quality control testing with printed ballots be substantially improved before future distribution,” Smith said. “The county is 100% committed to minimizing the risk that an elections failure could happen again.”
She also said she expects better performance from the elections office, which operates independently under Hall, who is herself an elected official and facing a re-election bid in November.
“I expect the clerk to conduct a thorough review of her operations and decisions following this last primary election, as well as her full cooperation with the audits requested by the secretary of state,” Smith said. “I expect her findings to be presented to the full board of county commissioners.”
607 people worked in Hall’s office during the unprecedented election fiasco to ensure the results were finalized by the certification deadline, representing more than 6,700 hours of work.