Multnomah County, state officials address vote-by-mail rumors ahead of election

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Election Day in Oregon is less than two months away, and local elections officials want to address rumors they say they have been hearing from voters about the mail-in process. Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott said the office has been fielding questions about whether vote by mail is safe. Last month, a USPS whistleblower alleged a new ballot sorting system was designed to fail. Any changes to mail-in voting have since been reversed by a federal court ruling. “I was on a call with the USPS just on Monday and that was our local regional processing folks, the folks who are responsible for vote by mail rules being enforced within the USPS and they assured us no change, same as it always has been,” Scott said.

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Scoop News DeskMultnomah County · Published Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 12:57 AM UTCUpdated Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 3:09 AM UTC

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If you do vote by drop box, the county has added extra security to drop boxes since one box was vandalized by fire in 2024. “We decided that we should build a better fire suppression system,” Scott said. “These are specifically designed to work in an enclosed space.” Once the county receives a ballot, it goes through processing units that handle up to 45,000 ballots at a time.