WOON OUT
Elections Director at center of non-citizen voter registration and FTX $500,000 contribution messes resigns
Willamette Week and The Oregonian reported yesterday afternoon that embattled Elections Director Molly Woon will resign her position next month “in lieu of removal” by incoming Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat. Before her stint as Elections Director, Woon was a mainstay in Oregon Democratic politics, having served as deputy director of the Democratic Party of Oregon.
Woon’s brief tenure as Elections Director was controversial from the start, earning her plenty of attention in this here Oregon Roundup. Then-Secretary of State Shemia Fagan appointed Woon Elections Director in January 2023, after the previous director objected to Fagan ordering the inclusion of a fellow Democrat’s voter pamphlet statement even though the statement was filed after the deadline established by Oregon law.
The Elections Division admitted just months before the 2024 election it had registered non-citizens to vote via the state’s automatic motor voter registration program. The Elections Division and the Oregon Department of Transportation said the unlawful registrations occurred due to data entry errors and software errors.
Woon said at the time, when the state was just learning the extent of its registration of non-citizens, that the registration of non-citizens to vote would not affect the 2024 election. Woon did not offer a basis for her prediction.
The Governor and Secretary of State this week certified the election in immigrant-rich House District 22, wherein Democrats regained a tax-hiking supermajority in the House of Representatives on the back of a 161-vote victory by the Democrat in a race the Republican incumbent led until days after election day.
Woon appeared in a video produced by a pro-automatic voter registration group over the summer saying she thinks “it is really unfortunate if someone is prevented from getting a ballot for any reason whatsoever.” The video was recorded just prior to disclosure of non-citizen registrations.
Governor Tina Kotek “paused” automatic motor voter registration pending the outcome of an audit of that program following disclosure it registered non-citizens to vote. The state has said more than 1,500 people were registered to vote without presenting proof of citizenship. The total number of non-citizens registered to vote in Oregon remains unknown.
The state only learned its motor voter system unlawfully registered non-citizens because of a call from a left-leaning nonprofit that advocates Oregon-style automatic voter registration. The Governor’s Office, scheduled an emergency briefing from that nonprofit for the day after non-citizen registration became public. Woon, Oregon’s Elections Director, was invited to that briefing, the apparent purpose of which was for the nonprofit to tell Oregon officials how Oregon’s voting system registered non-citizens to vote.
Last year, Woon declined to recuse herself from an enforcement action by her current employer, the Secretary of State’s office, against her former employer, the Democratic Party of Oregon, over the DPO having misreported the source of its largest-ever contribution. The DPO originally reported the source of a $500,000 contribution in October 2022 was from a cryptocurrency bank, when in fact it was from an executive of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency firm FTX.
Nishad Singh, the executive, pleaded guilty to federal campaign finance fraud charges, but has not faced similar charges in Oregon. Woon’s Elections Division approved the reduction of a late-filing fine for the DPO and cut off the Elections Divisions’ investigation into other wrongdoing by Woon’s former employer related to the contribution.
Joining Woon in resigning ahead of Read becoming Secretary of State was Audits Director Kip Memmott. Memmott defended his division’s audit of Oregon’s cannabis regulations despite the involvement of Fagan, who became a $10,000-per-month consultant for cannabis firm La Mota while serving as Secretary of State, in shaping the audit.
Read moves from his current State Treasurer role to become Secretary of State in January. He is expected to name replacements for Woon and Memmott.
As a "recovering Democrat" the one statewide vote I felt good about was Tobias Read for Secretary of State.
When I was an elected official (for a quarter century 1994-2019) I found myself often defending Oregon as a state where political corruption was non-existent. I argued that incompetence was common but not corruption. I was wrong, as has been shown by the shenanigans of the Secretary of State, Governor, and Attorney General.
I am not yet a Republican, but I am now, like most Oregonians a true independent (not the lame party of that name that scams people into joining).
"Woon said at the time, when the state was just learning the extent of its registration of non-citizens, that the registration of non-citizens to vote would not affect the 2024 election. Woon did not offer a basis for her prediction."
This was 1) wishcasting and 2) counting on local media to flush it down the rabbit hole, never to be mentioned again.