Les Zaitz, Salem Reporter editor (Robert Quick photo)
We will get through this, Salem.
At Salem Reporter, we’ve planned carefully for how our team will cover the election results.
That planning kept faith with key points.
First, we aren’t going to call any races. You don’t need us making predictions. Results, especially in Oregon, will speak for themselves.
Second, we’re going sort fact from fiction. Odds are high that social media will be alive with false information and even deliberate lies.
Third, we’re going to be mindful of your safety. We will be keeping a sharp eye on the community for any signs that the results are triggering more than elation or disappointment.
The Salem Reporter team will give you results – the base numbers – as soon as they are available. We intend to keep pace with county clerks and the state elections officials as updated counts are released through Tuesday night. Keep up with us on our website, on our Facebook and Twitter pages and our emailed newsletters.
The early voting this time suggests we’ll know who won in local races fairly quickly. County clerks started scanning ballots last week, meaning the tally for the majority of votes will be disclosed soon after voting ends at 8 p.m. Tuesday. In some races, the winner will be apparent. In others, the winner may not be settled until later in the night or even the following day in really close races.
The key impacts we’ll be watch for:
*Does the Marion County Board of Commissioners stay all-Republican or does a Democrat get a seat?
*Will the Oregon Legislature turn a deeper shade of blue or will voters decide a supermajority isn’t effective and send more Republicans to tip the balance?
*How do Salem voters settle on the Trump-Biden matchup? How does that result compare to how Oregon and the rest of the country is voting?
There is a bit of a pall over this election nationwide because of the relentless claims that voting has been rigged or flawed. President Donald Trump has pounded that drum all summer, offering no evidence that elections officials are as crooked as he suggests.
At Salem Reporter, our team of reporters Jake Thomas, Saphara Harrell and Rachel Alexander have reported carefully on how elections are handled in Oregon. Marion County Clerk Bill Burgess and Polk County Clerk Val Unger and their staffs have been generous with their time to help us help you understand the system.
Fortunately, Oregon has been doing vote-by-mail for 20 years. We have had plenty of time to work out kinks, to build in security and to ensure voters get to vote.
“Voter fraud is exceedingly rare in Oregon,” according to a recent analysis by the Legislative Fiscal Office.
From 2000 to 2019, Oregonians cast nearly 61 million ballots. In those years, just 38 people have been convicted of election fraud. The Legislative Fiscal Office calculates the fraud rate at .0000006%.
The mood on election night in Oregon, then, probably won’t be set by state results. Rather, the reactions are more likely to be part of a national response. Most voters will take the results in stride and accept them. But one possibility anticipated by law enforcement is that the winner of the White House remains uncertain because the avalanche of ballots across the U.S. will take longer than normal to process. That could lead to suspicions that something has gone wrong. The other possibility is that people will find out who won – and they won’t like it to the point of anger and even violence.
Already, we’ve read accounts of people facing arrest for criminal conduct related to the national political climate. And on Halloween night, hooligans in Portland let loose during a march, smashing business windows and forcing police to declare a riot.
Those are not good signs for what’s coming Tuesday night.
And here’s where our job is going to be the most challenging.
We are as prepared as we can be to report on trouble in Salem. We are very mindful that our reporting has to be modulated to avoid triggering unnecessary fear – or stoke any madness that may unfold on our streets. We won’t report on incidents in a way that make them seem bigger than they are. But we also won’t shy from telling you the truth, if for no other reason than for you to safeguard yourselves, your families and perhaps your property.
And we are mindful that rumors often outrun the truth by a good measure. Our team will be alert to false statements and do what we can to knock down the fake reports with fact. That won’t be easy, but that’s our duty to the community.
My hope is that, at least in Salem, all that planning just turns out to be good practice. I hope I don’t have to decide that reporters and photographers have to head to the streets because the election has unleashed mobs in town.
I have a final ask of you, our reader. On election night, check in with us. Send me a note about your read of the election results, your sense of the community temperature. Be part of our reporting by sharing your observations by email to [email protected]. Let’s work together to show that the people of Salem respect and participate in this democratic process, and that we’re not going to be part of the reckless behavior so many anticipate in other cities.
Les Zaitz is co-founder and editor of Salem Reporter.
Election stories from Salem Reporter in one place:
VOTING VITALS: Ballot return data, voting information for Oct. 30
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