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VOLVO SOUGHT IN BALLOT BOX FIRES: Hundreds of ballots awaiting pickup in Vancouver, Wash., were destroyed in the wee hours of Oct. 28 in an arson fire that left a ballot box smoking. A second box in front of the Multnomah County Elections Division was also set on fire that night, but the box’s fire suppression device released a dry suppressant that protected all but three of the ballots inside. The Elections Division is contacting the three affected voters. Voters who dropped their ballots off at the affected Vancouver location after 11 am Saturday should check their ballots’ status and, if they don’t appear as received, request new ones. Officials in Multnomah and Clark counties are pursuing a joint investigation, aided by the FBI, and believe the two incidents are linked. The suspect vehicle is a black or dark-colored Volvo S60 with a model year between 2001 and 2004. Both counties have plans to monitor the boxes 24 hours a day, and many officials deemed the arson fires as attacks on democracy. The ballot box in Vancouver is in one of the most hotly contested congressional districts in the nation. “I want every voter to be able to vote and do that safely,” said Multnomah County elections director Tim Scott.
STATE PLANS TO JETTISON REAL ESTATE: The director of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services sent a memo to agency managers this week telling them to get ready to downsize on real estate, which could be good for taxpayers but tough for the already grim market for office space. “Our office footprint statewide is extremely underutilized,” Berri Leslie wrote Oct. 28. “Approximately 45% of state employees are designated remote or hybrid, and most agencies are using about 25% or less of their offices. Given the permanence of hybrid work, DAS estimates the office footprint can be reduced or identified for reduction by 30% by year end 2027, saving approximately $78 million per biennium.” DAS spokeswoman Andrea Chiapella tells WW that Leslie is reacting to the new normal and that selling buildings is an option. “Gov. Kotek has asked DAS to look for opportunities to improve agency performance to better serve Oregonians and to save taxpayer dollars,” Chiapella says. “The hybrid workplace has created unique opportunities to recruit and retain employees. It has also provided the opportunity to rethink the traditional office space, save money on consolidating buildings, and consider more creative uses.”
NEW COUNTY AMBULANCE DATA SHOWS SLOWDOWN HIT GRESHAM HARDEST: For several months in the late summer and early autumn of 2023, ambulances in Gresham were late to 59% of life-threatening calls, according to new data released by Multnomah County. That number has since come down, to around 40%, although it’s far above the 10% to 20% rate expected from American Medical Response, the county’s ambulance contractor. Gresham was the city hit hardest by slowdowns in the county, but AMR, which says it’s too short-staffed to operate all of its ambulances at once, is running late across the metro area. Under pressure, the county made a deal with AMR earlier this summer to relieve some of the staffing pressure by eliminating the requirement that it staff every ambulance with two paramedics. The county also promised to waive some of the fines AMR accrued for years of noncompliance with the county contract. This latest data, which the county promises to update monthly on an online dashboard, goes up only to August of this year. AMR says the numbers have improved further since.
VOTERS SLOW TO RETURN BALLOTS: As of Oct. 29, figures compiled by the Oregon Elections Division showed that just 18.3% of Multnomah County voters had returned their ballots, a percentage far lower than the statewide rate of 24.8% and far behind totals for this point in the cycle in previous general elections. It might be tempting to attribute voters’ behavior to Portland’s first experience with ranked-choice voting and the large number of candidates running for City Council. The problem with that theory is that voters in counties that don’t have newfangled ballots this year—including Clackamas (16.3% voter turnout so far) and Yamhill (18.2%)—are also turning in ballots slowly. One other factor: This is the first presidential election year since a 2021 law went into effect requiring only that Oregon ballots be postmarked, rather than received, by Election Day. DHM Research pollster John Horvick, who tracks voter history and behavior, says it would be a mistake to make much of the light turnout in view of all the variables at play. Says Horvick, “I just don’t think you can draw any conclusions.”