HEPPNER — The clock is ticking on the certification of the Morrow County recall election as two county commissioners are calling foul.

The recall election was a “colossal disaster,” Commissioner Jim Doherty said.

“I don’t think that at this point the clerk can certify the election,” he said.

County Clerk Bobbi Childers said she would not comment about the situation at this time.

On Nov. 29, Election Day, Morrow voters dropped off the ballots to decide whether to recall two of their three county commissioners — Doherty and Melissa Lindsay. The tide went against the commissioners. Doherty lost 1,339 to 1,174, and Lindsay lost 1,265 to 1,244.

This was set to end their jobs early. Doherty is serving a term that started in 2021 and would’ve ended in 2025. Lindsay started her term in 2017 and would have completed it on Jan. 3 because she lost in the Nov. 8 general election. But both would be out — had Childers certified the election Wednesday, Dec. 21.

But the two commissioners hired Salem lawyers to represent them to contest the validity of the election.

Fallout from recall

The calendar on the county clerk’s website marks Dec. 21 as the date to “watch for certification.”

That would have created a two-week period in which the county board had only one commissioner and thus not at least two needed for a quorum until the new commissioners take office.

Commissioner Don Russell brought up the issue of recall and its ramifications in a report during the Dec. 14 board meeting, according to minutes from that meeting.

Russell stated he had been in touch with state Rep. Greg Smith and Sen. Bill Hansell about what would happen after Dec. 20. According to Russell, Hansell and Smith said the governor would ask David Sykes, who recently won an election to be commissioner, to fill his position early.

The minutes further state Russell said “there would be a quorum and the county could continue to have commission meetings, if for nothing else, to start the process of advertising for the unfilled position.”

Doherty, according to the meeting’s minutes, questioned if Russell could even call a meeting and added “there’s lots of potentials from various and sundry things” to address. But he did not specify what those were.

Lawyers claim ‘numerous errors’ in election

But the East Oregonian received a Dec. 14 letter that attorneys Steve Elzinga, of Sherman Sherman Johnnie & Hoyt, and Joe Huddleston, of Mannix Law Firm, sent to Nelson and Childers that argues there were “numerous errors that confused and disenfranchised many Morrow County voters in the recent recall election.”

Due to those errors, then, the attorneys for Doherty and Lindsay stated, “The county clerk cannot and should not certify results of the recent recall election since the election was conducted improperly from the start in a manner that hindered full voter participation.”

The chief complaint alleges Childers violated Oregon elections law when she sent the recall ballots Nov. 4. Instead, the lawyers assert, Childers should have sent recall ballots between Nov. 9 and Nov. 15, after the general election. Mailing the recall ballots while the general election was underway goes against Oregon law, according to the attorneys, and “created widespread voter confusion.”

Childers on election day made comments to that effect to the EO Media Group. She said at the time some voters called because they were concerned they received additional general election ballots when they had instead received ballots for the recall.

The letter from the attorneys there are “declarations made under oath by multiple Morrow County voters explaining some of the many problems this created.”

One voter reported throwing away the recall ballots because they looked the same as the general election ballot, according to the letters, and others reported mailing or dropping off their general election and recall ballots at the same time, but the clerk’s office only counted their general election ballot.

Doherty also produced an email he sent on Nov. 8 to Childers about possible voter confusion.

“Just a heads up I have had multiple constituents reach out and tell me they have received several recall ballots in their name. Happy to connect you,” Doherty said in his email to Childers.

Her reply: “Let them contact me. I will say most think this is part of today.”

That is, Doherty explained, Childers admitting voters were confusing the recall ballots with the general election ballots.

Doherty also confirmed statements in the letter, claiming the clerk’s office did not follow election rules, which caused confusion for voters.

Many people, Doherty said, thought the recall ballot was a second general election ballot sent by mistake. As a result, he said, they trashed the recall ballots without even looking at them.

Childers said she remembers nothing in her emails to Doherty that implied ballots were sent too early.

The recall had other problems, too, Doherty said, including questions of petition signature verification and the pickup of ballots.

Moving forward

The attorneys’ letter ends with two options for Childers: decline certification or seek a court order for a new recall election.

At this point, Doherty said he wasn’t sure whether certification would occur, but felt he should continue his fight.

“You never give up on doing the right thing,” he said.

Doherty called elections “the cornerstone of our democracy” and stressed the importance of correcting mistakes with this election so people can have confidence in the system.

There is the possibility, Doherty said, the clerk certifies the election and then joins him and Lindsay in going to court to undo what he called “the blunder.”

“I think the certification might have to happen,” he said, “even on a flawed election.”

“I think the certification might have to happen, even on a flawed election.”

—Jim Doherty, Morrow County commissioner

“The county clerk cannot and should not certify results of the recent recall election since the election was conducted improperly from the start in a manner that hindered full voter participation.”

— Steve Elzinga and Joe Huddleston, attorneys