Brown opposes non-partisan Secretary of State

After some deliberation, Kate Brown announced Thursday through a campaign email that she does not support the idea of making the Secretary of State a non-partisan office.

“Every Oregonian, regardless of political affiliation, deserves to be confident in the outcome of elections and know that their vote was counted. I won my first race by 7 votes, so I know firsthand how important it is that every single vote is counted,” Brown wrote.

“But, making the office Secretary of State non-partisan doesn't solve the root problem, which is that the person charged with overseeing the bedrock of our democracy should not be in the pocket of any campaign. We saw this in Florida in 2000 and the public trust in our electoral process was severely undermined. No Chief Elections Officer should also be an officer of a campaign. What Katherine Harris did in Florida was wrong and ought to be against the law.”

The issue has generated renewed interested recently, after the Oregonian ran an editorial calling for the reform.

So far, of Brown’s opponents, Rick Metsger is the only one who has openly embraced the idea of making the Secretary of State non-partisan, although Brad Avakian’s camp did not return messages requesting his position.

In an interview earlier this week, Vicki Walker strongly rejected the idea.