Spe City Club Jan 011 Final

8/7/2019 Spe City Club Jan 011 Final

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Introduction

Thank you Sherry and thank you all for the warm welcome. I want

to begin by thanking the Portland City Club for the invitation tocome speak with you all today. The last time I was here was during

the 2008 campaign for Secretary of State. I shared the stage with my

opponents in the Democratic primary. I can promise you this will be

a lot more funwell at least for me.

When Judge Wyatt extended the invitation last month she asked me

to speak about Vote-by-mail, why it took so long to count ballots in

Multnomah County, recounts and my role, if any, in redistricting. I

thought great those are all things I would love to talk about.

However,

I couldnt help but think that I do a lot more than oversee elections

and I owe it to my staff and to you to share with you what it is your

Secretary of State is doing down in Salem.

The way I see it, Im a 3 for the price of 1 elected official. Well

just to the north of us in the state of Washington they have a state

elected auditor, an Secretary of State, (my friend Sam Reed) and an

a Lieutenant Governor. I do all three jobs for less than the price of

one of them. That makes me quite a bargain for Oregonians; it also

means my office has to take on challenges in diverse policy areas.

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For the record, I oversee four external divisions: audits, archives,

corporation, and elections as well as three internal ones, Business

Services Division, Information Systems Division and Human

Resources. But what I see as my major role is encouraging

innovation and fostering intelligent risk taking. What I would like to

talk to you about this afternoon is a vision that weve created for the

agency during my first two years in office, which is: to innovate for

the future, deliver more efficient results, and engage more

Oregonians. My plan is to share some of the wonderful work that is

happening at corp, audits, archives, elections, and then I will then

close with a discussion on redistricting. And of course I will leave

time for those famous city club questions.

One of the reasons I am so honored to work with the employees at

this office is that I see us as a petrie dish; a place for the birth ofnew ideas and their development. Creativity and innovation are not

new..You might be surprised to learn that the Archives Division

the managers of state records was the first agency in the world to

have its historical holdings on line. We now have more documents

on line than any other agency in the state.

It is very important to me that I support a culture of

innovation/intelligent risk taking for a couple of reasons.

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First of all, I want us to be a model not only for other agencies in

the state, but for the nation.

The other reason why Im committed to fostering innovation anddelivering results is because of the deficit Oregon is facing. The way

I see it, we either need to dramatically reduce the services we

provide to Oregonians, or we need to figure out how to do it

differently --and, honestly-- its probably going to take a little of

both. We can not tax our way out and we can not cut our way out of

the deficit. With innovation and creativity, we can figure out how to

deliver services at less cost and by improving processes, we can

wring more out of every single taxpayer dollar that you give us.

While you might not think of state government as being risk taking

or innovative, at this point in time, we have no o choice. As David

Osborne in his visit to Portland, has mentioned, we cant keep

beating the same dead horse. As a horsewoman, I probably

shouldnt use that metaphor, but it is really, really true.

Let me illustrate this for you with an example from the Archives

Division. While you may not think of Archives to be sexy, creative

or innovative actually this division is all of the above. Before I came

on board we were paying for photos to be used in our Blue Book,

which is the almanac for the State of Oregon. These photos were

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expensive. So when one of our archivists volunteered to take photos

as he traveled Oregons 36 counties checking recordswe jumped

at the opportunity.

Not knowing what we would get back, this long time archives

employee turned out to be a superb photographer. I've seen the

photos and their quality is stunning, so good in fact the archives

division is able to sell them to other state agencies and use the funds

to help reduce the cost of producing the Blue Book. This is a agreat

n example of what I mean by innovation: how we are empowering

our employees to work smart and be creative.

Using no expensive consultants, no new equipment, no new hires

just solid, in-house creative problem solving.

In another of my divisions, Corporation, working with our

Information Systems Division, our employees have been both

creative and innovative to make it as easy as possible to start a

business in Oregon and create new jobs.

Over 30 years ago, Governor Vic Atiyeh envisioned a day when a

business could get all the permits it needed in one place at the same

time. Our Central Business registry does just that. It enables anyone

to start a business in Oregon and register with our Corporation

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Division, Department of Revenue and the Employment Department,

at one place at the same time.

The best news is, we arent done yet. By the end of my first term weplan to have the state system totally connected to the local

governments as well. So you could truly get all the permits you need

to start a business online on one site. Its pretty amazing and it was

developed in house. It took a little bit of technology, well actually a

lot of technology, and a lot of patience to implement. But by the end

of my first term we will finally be able to realize Governor Atiyehs

vision of one stop shopping.

By streamlining these processes, we have been able to reduce the

number of employees in this division from 60 to 30, while offering an

even better service to our customers. Building on these successes, we

will continue to innovate, while working with the business

community to make sure that we are meeting their needs.

Again, no expensive consultants, no new equipment, ok maybe some

new technology, no new hires, just solid, in-house, creative problem

solving.

I have touched briefly on how we are using innovation to provide a

better product to Oregonians at the Archives and Corporation

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Divisions; let me move next to Audits where we are delivering better

results.

In these tough economic times, as we are trying to squeezeeverything we can out of every taxpayer dollar, auditing plays a

crucial role. A few moments ago I mentioned that we cant cut or tax

our way out of this deficit, we need to figure out how to deliver

services more effectively and efficiently to Oregonians.

Historically, Oregon has done a great job with our fiscal audits, or

what I call Show me the money audits. Where we have lagged

behind is in performance auditing, or what I call show me the

results audits. In performance auditing, we question, challenge,

compare, make recommendations and most importantly, follow up.

The job of our Audits division is to offer state agencies concrete

recommendations on how to do things more effectively and more

efficiently.

In a way, audits provide a road map for state agencies to find their

way to peak performance.

In order to get this done, one of my first moves was to steal Gary

Blackmer from the Metro area to become the director of Audits.

This was a major victory for us as he is a nationally recognized

performance auditor. Under our leadership, we have focused on

alligators not mosquitoes, focusing our work on programs with large

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amounts of general fund dollars. We have also reduced the amount

of time on each audit and the number of auditors on each audit, so

our agency is more efficient. Just to give you a concrete example,

we have historically advertised that every dollar spent on

performance audits returns 8 dollars in cost savings. After looking

at our 2010 numbers, that number in has increased to $64 dollars.

Now that is real return on your investment in performance auditing.

And

The good news is, were seeing results.

A good example occurred this past June; our auditors released an

audit, which looked at the States effectiveness in collecting child

support payments. This subject is near and dear to my heart

because of my experience as a young lawyer. I saw so many single

moms who couldnt collect their child support because the father

married someone else, put all his assets in his new wifes name,

shielding them from his children.

I know that the laws have changed substantially. Still, in 2008, the

state collected just 62% of child support due. Thats a D-, folks. Our

audits team found room for substantial room for improvement, and

made recommendations to the Department of Justice.

Consequently, the Department is seeking legislative approval for the

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tools they need, to increase child support collection. For the sake of

Oregons children, Im hoping that within two years, well see an

80% collection rate; or at least a B, on our way to an A. Oregons

children deserve no less.

And while we see historically good compliance with our

recommendations, we are going back in to these state agencies for

what we call follow up audits, to ensure that they have implemented

the road map we laid out for them.

This is just one example of the critical kind of work we are doing in

Audits. And while these audits cannot alone solve the 3.5 billion

dollar deficit, every process improvement we make will enable us to

get more bang out of every taxpayer dollar that you give us. Id love

to come back to speak to you about more about some innovations we

have planned for Auditing in Oregon.

You have heard about my over achievers in Archives, my crafty staff

at corporations and my amazing auditing team. Now, Ill introduce

you to my elections team and then yes, Im getting to re-districting.

During the last round of cuts, the Elections Division took a hit and

with another round of cuts looming, I fear more reductions are

inevitable. Elections are a critical part of our democratic

infrastructure. However, we often take for granted the talented

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individuals involved in administering this sacred ritual. You might

be surprised to learn that we only have only 16 full time staff to

work on elections. Yesyou heard right I only have 16 full time

people doing this work at the State Government level. If you add up

all the elections people across the state you probably have a total of

100 people to run a system for over 2 million (and counting) voters.

Our challenge is to how to continue to provide the excellent service

at a reduced cost to tax payers. One way to finding solutions is

through intelligent risk taking. And sometimes taking risk, even

intelligent risk, is scary. What I mean by intelligent risk taking is

taking risks where the upside is virtually unlimited and the potential

downside is fixed or limited.

In state government we are rarely rewarded when we succeed, but

lambasted on the front pages of the newspapers when we fail. I think

it is really important to that we foster a culture that says it is okay to

take intelligent risks. We can do that by implementing innovative

programs incrementally, like we did with the Central Business

Registry and test each phase or we can take a common sense

approach like we did in the Elections Division.

In the past, elections employees with a legal question would call the

Department of Justice for advice. We are billed for every single

minute of advice, and it cost us a ton of money. Those of you lawyers

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you know what Im talking aboutbillable hours. Yet in most cases

the employees were already sure of the answer.

After consulting with our employees and asking for their ideas onhow we could cut back the legal costs we realized that our elections

employees are the experts. Our legal fees for the last biennium were

cut $100,000 a year simply by telling our elections experts that if

they are 99% sure of the answer, to trust their instincts and go with

their gut. Lawsuits havent increased and were saving a lot of

money.

Thats what I call very lucrative intelligent risk.

And again I want to emphasize, No expensive consultants, no new

equipment, no new hires just solid, in-house, creative problem

solving made this happen.

This is of course not the first time Oregon elections have been

innovative and creative. As most of you know Oregon is still the only

state in the nation that is entirely Vote-By-Mail. Oregonians love

VBM- we know this because we have some of the highest voter

turnout in the nation amongst registered voters.

I think our turnout is so high because our system is so convenient

and accessible. It also happens to be cheaper than the traditional

polling places costing on average 30 percent less.

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Vote-By-Mail is also secure. I am repeatedly asked why it took so

long for Multnomah County to process the 91,000 ballots droppedoff on the final day. The short answer is security and accuracy but

the long answer will entail me giving you a basic rundown of the

steps involved prior to a ballot being counted.

All ballots have a bar code. Once they arrive at the elections office,

staff sort them and wand the bar code, by hand to verify that it

belongs to the voter.

Then, staff use the Oregon Centralized Voter Registration database

to compare each signature on the ballot to the voter registration

card. When they dont match they are taken out and the voters

contacted by letter or phone. The folks who do the signature

verification receive training by the same people who train the

forensic specialists at the Oregon State Police.

I know each signature is scrutinized. A few years back I got a call

from my elections clerk saying my signature didnt match my voter

registration card and I needed to come down to the office and verify

I was indeed Kate Brown and that the signature belonged to me.

You can imagine the clerks surprise when I showed up to verify my

identify. Thats how I know that every single ballot is checked!

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So after the signature is checked, the ballots go to an elections

board. An elections board is a group of people that open and process

the ballots before they go to the scanner to be counted. They are

dedicated men and women who are committed to their duties as a

board and in some cases do this manual work with little pay year

after year. We could not function without these volunteers and

temporary employees. They are truly my heros!

It is required by statute that the elections board be comprised of at

least two people from different parties. If someone leaves to go to the

bathroom or get a Coke, they stop. That is true of every single

board, in every single county in Oregon.

The reason it took so long for the 91,000 ballots in Multnomah

County to be processed is that every one of them needed to be

wanded in, have their signatures verified and allow for the elections

boards to review every single ballot before they get counted by the

machines. Overall, Im confident that our Vote-by-mail system is

still incredibly quick in delivering results. And even more

importantly its accurate.

I am no stranger to recounts. I was involved in one myself. Some of

you know that I won my first primary race by literally SEVEN

VOTES. This year we had a couple of Senate elections that were

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very close, with a difference of less than 300 votes. In Oregon, if the

top two candidates are less than one-fifth of one percent apart the

statute requires an automatic recount.

However, the candidate or campaign can choose to pay for a full or

partial recount just as the Republicans did in Jackson Countys

Senate District 3 race or the Democrats did in Clackamas Countys

Senate District 20.

These recounts dispelled any remaining doubts about the accuracy

of our system. You should know that the recount results of these

races were almost exactly the same as the original results. In

Clackamas County the results were 100% identical. In Jackson

County the count was seven votes off. Considering they counted

more than 50,000 votes being only seven votes off equals about a 40 -

one hundredths of a percent discrepancy. And we are in the process

of examining what happened with those ballots to make sure it

doesnt happen next time around.,

If you have any doubt about our system, I encourage you to take a

look for yourself. You can to view the elections process in person at

your county elections office. Many chose to do so this last election. It

just shows that the system is also incredibly transparent. Because of

Vote-By-Mail, we have a paper trail. You can physically watch the

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ballots being counted which gives me an added sense of security and

confidence in our system.

Despite the level of security and transparency, I know that Vote-By-Mail has its critics. Some people even see vote by mail as a

Democratic plot to steal elections. I think that Norma Paulus would

be quite upset to hear that. She was the prominent Republican who

actually instituted the vote by mail statute that allowed local

elections to happen by bail as early as 1981. It really was Normas

vision that Phil Keisling implemented via the initiative process that

got us where we are today.

As I mentioned, part of my vision is to engage more Oregonians, and

unfortunately we lag behind the rest of the country in terms of voter

registration. Thats why I was absolutely thrilled when

Representative Ben Cannon introduced an online voter registration

bill during the 2009 legislative session. When that bill passed, we

were able to implement our online voter registration system in

March of 2010. Our online system is simple, accessible and

incredibly secure.

Now, as a result of that bill,any citizen with an electronic signature

on file with the Oregon DMV (such as a state ID card, drivers

license or permit) is able to use the online registration system. It

isnt meant to replace paper registration but provides another

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convenient option. Most importantly, it removes a barrier for

people to participate in the political process. The truth is, that we

know that if we can get people registered they are more likely to

vote. With Vote-By-Mail, Oregons turnout amongst registered

voters has consistently been in the top 10 in the nation over the last 3

election cycles. For example in our last presidential election

Oregons voter turnout was about 85.7%! Outstanding!

Our Online Voter Registration system is also cost effective. A recent

Pew study says we spent $8 million to register voters in 2008 -- $8

million for voter registration! Under our current system the paper

registration system costs about $4.00 per voter. With the online

system were spending less than $1.00 per registered voter. Thats a

75% savings for the taxpayer and in real dollars thats a $6 million

dollar savings. That is culture change in action saving Oregoniansdollars and cents.

As spectacular as I find the vote by mail system, we are also finding

new ways to improve the voting experience through innovation.

Starting with the last election in November, by going to

oregonvotes.org and clicking on the my vote button, any voter can

track his/her ballot with our online ballot tracker application. Other

new functions of the My Vote system include:

1. Changing registration information on the spot;

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2. Finding a drop site; and

3. Finding answers to frequently asked questions.

But our elections innovation doesnt stop there. I know money is

tight but by making elections a priority, we are able to make the

most of what we have. That starts with what I call a modernization

of our voter registration system.

The paradigm of the 20th century was that it was incumbent upon

the citizens to register to vote. The new paradigm, of the 21st

century, is that the government contacts you as a result of using

government services. Instead of spending time registering voters,

organizations like the League of Women Voters, the Oregon Student

Association, The Bus Project, the political parties, can spend their

energy working to engage and educate voters. Thats the paradigm

shift.

By embracing such a shift, Im reflecting my opinion that voting is a

right not a privilege. When we look at voting this way, then it makes

sense that the onus should be on the State to provide unfettered

access to the ballot for all of its citizens.

Between participating in a Pew Charitable Trust pilot program to

get voter registration modernization off the ground and using some

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of our remaining Help American Vote Act dollars, we hope to have

parts of a system in place in time for the 2012 election.

Now that you know more about elections its time to talk about the

R wordredistricting.

Just to give you some basic information, Oregon goes through

redistricting every ten years, just after the Census Bureau releases

the data from its count.

With the Census numbers in hand, the Legislature is charged with

re-drawing the legislative plan and the Congressional plan. If either

of these plans fails or is vetoed by the Governor, responsibility is

then delegated: the Legislative plan goes to my office while the

Congressional Plan goes to Oregons courts.

ORS 188.010 sets forth the statutory criteria for drawing district

lines, which include they shall be contiguous; and use existing

geographic boundaries. In addition, no district shall be drawn to favor

any political party or incumbent legislator for the purpose of diluting the

voting strength of minority populations.

And while all of these criteria are equally significant, the main purpose

of redistricting is to equalize the populations of the districts.

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The last time we went through redistricting, in 2001, while I was the

caucus leader, I asked the Senate President (who happened to be a

Republican) to create a bipartisan committee to draw the district

lines. The reason I did so, was because I believe that there must be a

level playing field; that the process is fair. Thats the same

philosophy that will guide me as Secretary of State. For the record,

he refused.

If the Legislature unable to pass a redistricting plan this time

around, I want Oregonians to be absolutely confident that I will use

my wealth of experience and my incredibly talented staff to produce

a plan, which will be representative of the entire State. My

commitment to Oregonians above all, is to provide a fair and honest

process in redistricting.

My first priority will be to establish a non-partisan advisory group

to assist me in bringing as many voices to the table as I can. While I

am accountable to the voters, I still see such an advisory group as a

valuable check and balance, as I navigate the process.

Secondly, I will hit the road to hear from communities across the

state. I may not be able to reach everyone, but I will most definitely

put the effort in. As were crafting a plan, we need to include the

diverse perspectives from all over Oregon. The perspectives of

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people like Stan Timererman, a wheat farmer in Pendelton or

Salome Chimuku, my former HAVA Intern and current Willamette

student.

But were not there yet; the ball will start in the legislatures court.

We did some considerable research and discovered something very

interesting. The 2011 Legislature has a unique opportunity to be the

first legislature in Oregons modern history to pass a fully

implemented redistricting plan.

In both 1961 and 1981 plans were passed by the legislature,

approved by the Governor, but eventually ended up in the courts

and parts of each were overturned. The Secretary of State was then

called upon to fix up those sections before the plan could be put into

effect.

In both 1971 and 1991, the legislature was unable to enact a

redistricting plan.

In that 2001 session I talked about, we passed both legislative and

congressional plans. The Governor vetoed those plans and the

legislative plan was left for Secretary of State Bradbury to draw.

As we enter the session next week, the Legislature is a virtual 50/50

split. Bi-Partisan will not be a luxury this session, it will be a

necessity. This presents the Legislature with a historic opportunity,

to use this split to its advantage and draw up a plan that can work

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for both sides. By working on a bi-partisan basis, I think Oregonians

will have more confidence that there was a fair process because both

of the major parties would have an equal say.

With this in mind, I think Oregonians will agree with me that it

makes a lot of sense for the legislature to do redistricting. And there

are a couple of reasons behind my thinking.

First of all, the legislature will have more time. While I am well

aware of the huge task they have before them in this next session,

the legislature convenes in Feb and has until June 30th. This will give

lawmakers about three to four months to complete the redistricting

plan. By comparison, if Im asked to submit a plan I will only have

six weeks.

Secondly, even though I have visited all 36 Oregon counties

numerous times there is no doubt in my mind that state legislators

know their districts better than anyone else. Simply put, they have a

history there, theyve campaigned there and they live there.

For example, under the last redistricting plan, John Day and

Canyon City have two different house members. For those of you

who havent been there, these two cities are essentially twin cities.

Thats the kind of communities of interest that I may not be aware

of in drawing the entire plan.

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Another advantage to the legislature drawing up a plan, is that it

would provide the opportunity to bring more perspectives at the

table. Im a true believer that the best policies are made when we

have a diversity of folks making decisions.

Finally, I would never underestimate the ability of my good friend

President Peter Courtneys ability to rise to this particular

challenge. I would probably say this is one of the greatest challenges

of his whole career, and I am confident he will tackle it head-on.

However, having said all that, I realize, after serving in the

legislature for 17 years, that there is no way one can predict what

the legislature will do. I also know that this will be the toughest

session weve ever seen in the history of the state. I of all people

understand the difficult choices that they will need to make, in terms

of the budget.

But I want to reiterate, if they are unable to pass a redistricting

plan in 2011, Oregonians should be absolutely confident that my

experience, extremely talented staff and guiding values will help me

draw up a plan, which will be representative of the entire State. My

commitment to Oregonians above all, is to provide a fair and

transparent process in redistricting.

I, unfortunately, am out of time.

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Thank you so much for the opportunity to spend some time with to

share my vision as Secretary of State as we work to innovate for the

future, deliver results and engage more Oregonians in our work at

Archives, Audits, Corporation and Elections.

I am so grateful to be working with a committed, talented and

passionate team of employees as we work together to make your

Secretary of States office one of the best in the nation.

it has been my pleasure to share with you some of our successes in

being creative, innovative and risk taking. I LOOK FORWARD TO

HEARING YOUR QUESTIONS! Thank you/

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Spe City Club Jan 011 Final