A state Senate resolution condemned violence and threats against election workers.

The Oregon Legislature has voted to condemn violence and threats against election workers.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 1 describes the unrelenting false information from domestic and foreign sources during the 2020 and 2022 elections that fueled extremists who targeted secretaries of state, state election directors and local election officials and workers.

“Violence and violent threats directed at local election administrators and county clerks and their families and staff, as well as other election workers, is abhorrent and is the antithesis of what our nation stands for,” the resolution stated.

Over the past few years, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan has visited local election workers in the state’s 36 counties and heard their concerns.

“During this time of unprecedented attacks on our democracy, 25% of Oregon county clerks have retired or left office, in many cases after over 30 years of service,” Fagan said in a statement after the resolution was approved.

“SCR 1 sends a message to election officials from the leaders in our state. That message is we support you. We’ve got your back, and we won’t let false information interrupt the critical work you do for our democracy.”

The resolution, which attracted bipartisan support in Salem, was written carefully to avoid assigning political blame and mentioned other challenges to elections like the global pandemic and natural disasters.

But the false information about elections and many of the threats against election workers are rooted in former President Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. His lie has been amplified by right-wing media, led by Fox News, the nation’s most watched cable news network.

The temptation is to ignore — or worse, try to silence — fringe voices determined to put our democracy at risk. With polls showing Trump as the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president in 2024, it is difficult to distinguish the fringe from the mainstream of the Republican Party.

The Astorian, in one form or another, has provided a community forum for free speech for 150 years. Our view mirrors the counterspeech doctrine from former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis: more speech, not enforced silence.

That’s why we consider the resolution from the Legislature an important declaration. It called on all leaders to denounce this danger. The state House approved the resolution 53 to 3 in late March, with state Rep. Cyrus Javadi, a Tillamook Republican who represents the North Coast, voting “yes.” The Senate passed the resolution 22 to 8 in February, with Sen. Suzanne Weber, a Tillamook Republican, voting “no.”

Asked by The Astorian to explain her vote, Weber said it was a mistake and apologized to county clerks. “It’s a blow to think that you would have done something like that to a group of people who have worked so hard through the elections and through all of what they have had to go through surrounding these elections,” the state senator said, explaining that she was distracted at the time.

Last fall, before the November election, the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners had the chance to make a similar declaration. A small band of people tied to the local Republican Party tried to sow doubts about the security and transparency of the state’s elections system and undermine voter confidence.

Our county commissioners could have issued a clear, unambiguous public declaration that our elections are secure, but they shrunk from this opportunity. Individual commissioners did defend the county clerk and the local elections process, and the county released a series of election facts in the week before Election Day, but these steps fell short at a critical moment.

Tracie Krevanko, the county clerk, did not shrink. “I believe there’s a majority of the Clatsop County voters feel that it is secure, it is fair, it’s accurate,” she told The Astorian before the vote.

As we move into another election season, we hope county commissioners follow the Legislature and condemn violence and threats against election workers. They should also take the opportunity to declare that our elections are secure.

Election deniers have the same free speech rights as anyone and we should listen very closely to what they say. But if they do not believe in our elections process, they have no place holding positions of power in elected office, whether it’s the White House, the Statehouse, the school board or the water district.