Clackamas County clerk admits she didn't react quickly enough in blurry barcode mess
OREGON CITY, Ore. — Clackamas County Clerk Sherry Hall is admitting she didn't act quickly enough to deal with the major election issue that continues to delay results from the May primary.
Hall first revealed the issue almost two weeks before Election Day. Her office had learned that some of the voters were receiving ballots with blurry barcodes.
"I knew they would cause an issue," Hall said in a news conference Friday.
When asked why she didn't do anything more sooner, she didn't have a reason.
"I just didn't. I don't have any other reason but just to say that I didn't," Hall said.
Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan called Hall's response into question. In a statement she said, "Unfortunately, Clackamas County Elections did not respond to this crisis with appropriate urgency during the past two weeks. Voters and candidates deserve timely and predictable results, which we have not seen so far."
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Hall says there is no clear timeline as for how long it'll take to process all the corrected ballots and get the primary results, but she says she expects to give Fagan an answer by Monday. She says, regardless, they will have the votes tallied before the state deadline of June 13.
The delays are holding up results in the congressional primary race for House District 5 between Rep. Kurt Schrader and Jamie McLeod-Skinner.
Hall has been the county clerk since 2003. She says she has been working with the company that printed the ballots for about a decade but she doesn't intend to do future business with them.