PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Republican Party is taking a page from the Democrats’ playbook and hiring lawyers to monitor the vote-counting process this year.
This is the first year Oregon Republicans are using lawyers to monitor a statewide election in a non-presidential election year. The race for Oregon governor is expected to be close.
Oregon GOP chairman Bob Tiernan says Democrat-heavy Multnomah County is “sloppy” in its vote counting, and says the party’s three attorneys will help with monitoring the process.
Democrats have had lawyers monitoring the results since 2004, and now have about 50 throughout Oregon.
The lawyers will monitor the signature-verification, the ballot-opening and inspection areas, as well as the tabulation area where votes are counted.
