We’re less than a month from Election Day, and the headlines are worrying. The president is attacking vote-by-mail. The DOJ is threatening election officials. People are talking about ICE at drop boxes, and some Oregon ballots are likely to be rejected because the mail is too slow. So I went straight to the person running Oregon’s elections: Secretary of State Tobias Read, who at 6’7” is also the tallest guest in Schmidt Show history.

What we covered:

* The job you didn’t know he has. The Secretary of State is also Oregon’s auditor, and his office built a statewide risk map to decide where to look first.

* Playing defense against D.C. Federal election-security staff vanished days into his term. Since then Oregon has faced an executive order trying to rewrite election law, the SAVE Act, and a push to use a flawed federal database to check voters’ citizenship.

* “No, thanks.” The DOJ sued Oregon for its voter data. The judge tossed the case from the bench, and the feds are now 0-for-25 nationally.

* Why late ballots are piling up. All of Oregon’s mail now gets postmarked at one facility in Portland, which is why 7,314 primary ballots were rejected for late postmarks in this years primary.

* More drop boxes. About 20 new ones are coming, and BallotTrax text alerts are going statewide - sign up for BallotTrax when it becomes available in your jurisdiction.

* The fraud myth. Over 19 years and 60.9 million ballots examined in Oregon, ONLY 38 cases of improper voting during that entire period.

* Lightning round. What to do about ICE at drop boxes, the National Guard, hacking, a canceled election, or a refusal to certify. On that last one, Read’s answer: Oregon certifies its own results.

Key dates 📆

* Oct 13: Register or update your address

* Oct 14: Ballots mailed

* Oct 21: No ballot yet? Call your county clerk.

* Oct 27: Last day to mail safely

* Nov 3: Election Day. Ballots are due by 8 p.m.

The short version: Use a drop box. Any drop box in Oregon works. If you’re mailing, send it a week early or ask the post office for a hand postmark. Check your voter registration status at OregonVotes.gov.

Your homework: Check your registration, talk to a neighbor, and don’t let fear keep you home. VOTE!

Thanks to our sponsor, Corbett Hill Wellness. If you’d like to sponsor the show, reach out. And if you liked this one, leave a review, tell a friend, or share it. See you next week!

Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Election Day is less than seven weeks away, and one of the most consequential races on your ballot is for a job most Portlanders couldn’t describe: Multnomah County Chair. The incumbent isn’t running again, so no matter who wins, the county is getting a new leader and a new direction.

To help make sense of it, I sat down with someone who knows the job better than just about anyone. Deborah Kafoury spent 14 years on the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, eight of them as chair. She guided the county through the COVID-19 pandemic, heat domes, wildfires, and more than 200 nights of protest. Before that, she served in the Oregon House, including as Democratic leader. She’s now chief of staff at Portland Public Schools.

Deborah and I worked side by side through some of the hardest stretches in this community’s recent history. We had a candid, funny, and useful conversation about what the chair actually does and what voters should be asking the people who want the job.

In this episode:

* What the county chair actually does. Deborah’s shorthand for the difference between the two governments: the city builds physical infrastructure, and the county builds human infrastructure. She also explains why the chair acts as both a governor and a legislator.

* Why management experience matters. Every county employee, all 7,000 of them, ultimately works for the chair. Deborah explains why voters should ask whether candidates have run a team before, and whether they did it well.

* Her father’s rule for surviving public life: hire people smarter than you.

* What’s waiting on the next chair’s desk: homelessness, affordability, and projected budget cuts. She also explains why she sees the budget as a moral document.

* Working across the aisle. She tells how Republican partners made the Sellwood Bridge and the new county courthouse possible, and why the Republican House speaker threw her a baby shower.

* The questions to ask at a house party. Deborah’s advice: ask about trade-offs, and ask candidates who they’ll spend their time listening to.

* The red flags to watch for. Be wary of promises to end homelessness on a deadline, guilt-by-association attacks, and the idea that asking hard questions counts as getting things done.

* Her new role at Portland Public Schools, and some good news: test scores are up.

Plus, In the News: Our trash news correspondent Elinor Jones turns her attention to a group that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: men. She covers robots that can’t walk downstairs, Mitch McConnell’s return to the Senate, and Pete Hegseth’s testosterone plan for the military. Find more from Elinor in the Portland Mercury’s Trash Report.

Your homework: Attend a house party, knock some doors, talk to your neighbors, make sure you’re registered, and get your ballot in.

Season 3 of SchmidtShow PDX runs through Election Day. If you like what we’re doing, subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and leave us a review.

This episode is brought to you by Corbett Hill Wellness Center, offering chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, naturopathic medicine, and more. Interested in sponsoring the show? Reach out. We’d love to have you.

Schmidt Show PDX is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.