Oregon Secretary of State on USPS and Trump administration’s impact on elections

Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read recently called for the United States Postal Service to look at its policies around mail pick up on Election Day, after officials in Benton County found some voters’ ballots were left in mailboxes. The postal service has said they prioritize package delivery when staffing is short.

Read has also pushed back against the Trump administration’s threats to elections officials in all 50 states and D.C.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked vote-by-mail with false statements and is pressuring Congress to pass his “Save America Act” in an effort to exert federal control over state elections in a variety of ways.

We talk with Secretary Read about federal interference in Oregon elections and the security of elections in this state.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed using AI and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. With midterm elections less than four months away, we start this week with Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read. He is the state’s top elections officer, and he’s been busy responding to various efforts by theTrump administration to influence the way elections are carried out. Last week he pushed back against the Trump administration’s latest threats to elections officials in all 50 states. He has been speaking out against the president’s recent firing of the two Democratic members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and he called for the U.S. Postal Service to look at its policies around mail pickup on election day. That’s after officials in Benton County found that some voters’ May ballots were left in mailboxes. Tobias Read joins us now to talk about all of this. Welcome back to the show.

Tobias Read: Thanks, Dave.

Miller: I want to start with the Benton County situation. What have you been able to learn about what happened there in the May primary?

Read: Well, what we heard was reports that the postal service had instructed their carriers to emphasize the pick up of packages on election day, as opposed to ballots. So we’ve asked the postal service to review their procedures and directives, because that’s obviously something that can’t happen in November. We want every legal ballot to be counted, and if they are left in mailboxes, that’s not helping.

It’s also, though, a reminder, as we’ve been telling everybody, if you are an Oregon voter and you can get yourself to a dropbox, that is a foolproof way of getting your ballot back. Those go directly to elections offices and we don’t have to worry about the Postal Service. So we’re encouraging everyone, please use a dropbox if you can.

Miller: I want to get to your recommendations in just a second, but just to be clear about what you’ve been able to learn so far – first of all, have you talked directly with USPS officials about what happened in Benton County?

Read: We’ve asked for them to review, and we have not heard back. What we do know is that the number of ballots is not especially large. It’s 388 across Benton County, and that’s not enough to affect the outcome of any race or measure that’s on the ballot, but it is 388 people whose voices were not heard. So we’re asking the post office to make sure they’re clear and consistent in their directives to their personnel so that ballots that are in mailboxes get postmarked and delivered on time.

Miller: And is your main point to the USPS now, hey, we understand that in general, you might be prioritizing packages over letters, but around in the lead up to and on election day, don’t do that?

Read: Yeah, we want to make sure that people are understanding, voters are expecting that if their mail is in a box, it’s going to move forward, especially around election day. But this is also a reminder, as we’ve been talking about publicly, even with you in recent weeks, the post office is changing their procedures. There is one place in Oregon, now, that does all of the postmarking and processing; which is not a big deal if you if you live in the Portland area, but say you live in Medford and you’re mailing your ballot across town, it’s still going to go to Portland before it’s postmarked and processed.

So again, we are really, really encouraging people to use dropboxes if they can. If they need to use a mailbox, please do that at least a week before election day because they have to be postmarked by election day, and then they have to be in the elections office by seven days after the election, and we don’t want anyone’s ballot to be left behind as a result of that kind of scheduling challenge.

Miller: That’s a pretty significant recommendation you’re giving there. I mean, even though you and other Democratic states won the challenge against ballots being postmarked by election day and arriving later, you’re still saying don’t put your ballot in the mail less than a week ahead of time. You have that little faith in USPS in Oregon, right now.

Read: Well, they’re doing a lot of different things right now. The case in the Supreme Court was about the legality, but it’s not about the practicality.The practicality is that the Postal Service is changing their own operations.They have one facility in Oregon now to do that processing and postmarking, and that can take time, so I don’t want anyone to take any chances on that.

Those are cuts that are happening at a federal level. It’s not something that the state of Oregon is choosing. We’re working closely with the folks there, and I have some sympathy for the challenges that they’re facing given the directives they’re receiving from the federal government. But yes, if you can do a dropbox, that’s the way to go. If you need the mail, do it at least a week ahead of Election Day.

Miller: Let’s turn to some other election-related news. Can you tell us about the letter that you received from the U.S. Justice Department last week? I should say the latest letter that you received from the Justice Department?

Read: Good point. Well, they sent this to a number of election officials, perhaps all secretaries of state, essentially threatening prosecution and imprisonment for essentially doing our job and following the law. They contend that anyone who is knowingly allowing non-citizens to participate or to be on voter rolls would be subject to these things, and I want to say, thanks for reminding us of the federal law. We follow that already. I’d also say, you know, your desperation is showing.

This is the latest example of an administration that is increasingly looking for ways to justify their aims to advance conspiracy theories that don’t have any evidence with them. So we are not intimidated, we are not swayed by manufactured controversy or intimidation. This is what we do in Oregon. We follow the law. We make sure that people get to participate in an election because that is how we hold the government accountable, and we are going to do that in Oregon, as we always have.

Miller: Is this different from what the Justice Department has already asked you for, or warned you about?

Read: You know, they all kind of fit together. They continue to stretch, they continue to go beyond what the Constitution and federal law allow them to do, and I think they continue to look for ways to justify their election conspiracy claims. This is just their fever dreams of election fraud. It doesn’t exist. The evidence is not there, and they can continue to look for different ways to advance this theory.

I’m sure it will not be the last, but we just keep talking about our processes, the law, and the evidence.There’s a clear pattern here, and it is their increasing desperation to justify, or to try to justify the policies that they are pursuing, because they know that their policies outside of the elections world are not popular.

If the president and the administration wanted to actually help elections, they would be making sure that county clerks and elections officers across Oregon and across the country have the resources that they need. They don’t have them now. They would be working on restoring the cuts to the agency that’s supposed to protect our elections from cyber threats and foreign interference. Instead they cut that.They’d be working to make sure that more people have access to paper ballots and convenient ways to vote like we do in Oregon. Instead they’re engaged in this performative nonsense that really gives the lie to their “concerns” about election integrity. We know how to run elections in Oregon. We do that in ways that are safe and accurate and fair, and we’re going to continue to do that.

Miller: Are you obliged to respond to this letter? There seemed to be… there is this explicit threat that if you or other elections officers knowingly retain non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls, or facilitate them in receiving and casting ballots, you could be held criminally liable. As you mentioned, you’re saying you already know that, you’re not doing that, but are you also required, at least is this letter saying, “Show us that you’re not doing that?”

Read: It’s very unclear, and that’s what is kind of silly about this letter. I’m happy to talk with anyone anytime. I’m happy to go with them to our county elections offices across the state. There are 36 of them. I visited every one of them in person in 2025. These are folks who are doing the hard work of democracy. These are the unsung heroes. We’re having to figure this out with little more than duct tape and determination a lot of the time, and I think these federal officials who claim great concern should come with me and see that work.

They need help. These are folks who are facing not theoretical, not abstract, but very real threats in this world, and a lot of that is because of the reckless and irresponsible info that this administration seems to want to spread. They have not earned the benefit of the doubt, the federal government has not. They continue to exceed their authority. They’ve been trying to get the private info of Oregon voters before, and we’re not about to let that happen.

Miller: Am I right that the letter said that you had five days to respond, but it’s not clear what happens if you don’t respond within five days?

Read: Yeah, I mean, I’m responding all the time. Obviously this conversation is a good one. I’ve had conversations with other members of the media around the country. My colleagues in other states are doing the same, so I think we’re all responding saying we follow the law in our states, and we’d welcome the opportunity to show you that if you’d care to follow up on the details.

Miller: Let’s turn to another election-related issue that just happened in the last week. The president fired the two Democrats on the, at one point, four-person U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and the only, at that point, existing Republican resigned. But this might be the first time that a lot of Americans even heard about the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. What is the EAC?

Read: Well, let’s make sure before we answer that question, I think the way you said it is correct, but there’s a lot of evidence to suggest that that Republican was also asked to resign, so I think we can safely say that the president facilitated the removal of all three of the remaining Commissioners of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

This group was created with the specific responsibility of being a nonpartisan place for the technical aspects of elections to be run, the certification of voting systems and the accreditation of testing labs.They distributed various federal elections grants.They maintained this national voter registration form that’s used for mail. This is a forum for people who do this hard, non-exciting work, those of us who do it find it exciting, but the stuff that really makes elections work.

I’ve participated in a number of their meetings. This is not a place where politics really enters in. This is just how do we do the good work of elections and I don’t understand what this is, other than another effort to just cast doubt on elections – because they are how we hold politicians accountable – and I think this administration is increasingly fearful of what’s going to happen for them when Americans get to vote in free and fair elections. It makes me concerned, frankly, about what they have planned next because I don’t think this is their last attempt.

Miller: What exactly are you hinting at there? Maybe the more focused question is, what concerns you most right now?

Read: Well, I just think this is all of a piece. It is all a sequence. The president issues an illegal executive order. He sues to obtain the private voter information of Oregonians. He tries another illegal executive order when he can’t pass the so-called SAVE America Act in Congress. His administration issues these threatening letters. He talks about how we don’t need elections. He talks about sending armed troops to polling places, which looks different, of course, in Oregon than elsewhere; but all of these things, thing after thing after thing.

It would be foolish of me to speculate on what he has next, but I think this pattern just indicates an increasing desire to undercut elections, to make it harder for American citizens to hold him and other politicians in government accountable.

That’s what elections are about. And every one of these efforts is moving away from that. So I think every Oregonian and American ought to be concerned about it. It has nothing to do with partisanship. It has to do with the fundamental constitutional right of Oregonians and Americans to say, “This is my Declaration of Independence.” That’s what every vote is, and it’s a chance for us to shape our shared future. When the government is working to make that harder, that is not something that anyone should take easily.

Miller: You mentioned a long list there, putting the various pieces together. One of them is this bill, the SAVE America Act. Folks may remember that the president refused to sign a bipartisan housing bill that now has become law, but he refused to sign it to try to pressure Republicans to somehow muscle the SAVE America Act through Congress. Can you remind us what this bill would do?

Read: Well, it does a lot of things. Fundamentally, it makes it more expensive and more difficult for American citizens to vote. It requires new steps to document identification both at the registration stage – think about someone whose name has changed as a result of a marriage or a divorce or an adoption. They’re going to have to get a whole bunch of new documentation. They’re going to have to show that kind of identification when they vote. It’s unclear how that would work in a mail-in state like ours.

The questions about the security of photocopies of driver’s licenses or passports being sent in remain. Does it really make sense to require someone the expense of getting a passport, to say nothing of someone whose birth certificate might have been destroyed in a wildfire? Ultimately, the SAVE America Act is expensive. It’s dangerous. It’s completely unnecessary, and it is just yet another attack on the right of eligible Americans to vote.

Miller: Tobias Read, thanks very much.

Read: Thank you.

Miller: Tobias Read is Oregon’s Secretary of State.

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