FILE: Tabulation machine operators work at the Multnomah County Elections Division office in Portland, Ore., Nov. 1, 2024.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Automatic recounts have been triggered in 25 races from Oregon’s election held on May 20.
Secretary of State Tobias Read said the recounts are not likely to change any actual results. But counts can vary by one or two votes.
The state does not keep centralized statistics on the differences between initial ballot counts and recounts, so it’s hard to gauge election count accuracy.
“We always want to earn people’s trust in elections, though. So collecting that sort of statistic is something we can look into,” Read said in an interview with OPB.
Automatic recounts are triggered in Oregon when there’s a tie or when the margin is extremely close — specifically within 0.2% of the vote.
Read said elections are conducted by Oregon’s 36 counties, rather than the state.
“Collecting those statistics would be a collaboration with them. And I’m fairly confident that they share the goal with us of earning the trust of voters,” he said.
Staff members at the secretary of state’s office don’t recall a recount changing an election outcome in 2024 or so far in 2025.
“It’s common for recounts to change the vote counts, usually by a vote or two,” Read said. “But it’s very unusual for the overall result to change.”
Read won his own race to the state Legislature by just 86 votes in 2006.
Initial election counts are conducted by machines, so errors are introduced by things like feeding ballots into them the wrong way.
Recounts are done by hand with at least two county electors, each registered with a different party. But there’s still room for error as voters do things like draw lines through the circles on the ballot, rather than filling them in, leaving counters to decide intent.
Read said voters can help improve election counting accuracy by using a good, distinct signature both on their ballot envelopes and at the DMV, where the state keeps a record.
Close election results from the May election triggered hand recounts in Baker, Clatsop, Coos, Crook, Deschutes, Grant, Gilliam, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Linn, Tillamook, Umatilla and Wasco counties.
Voters can contact their county elections offices to find out more about local recounts.
