OFFICE OF THE
SECRETARY OF STATE

900 Court Street NE, #136
Salem, Oregon 97301

DENNIS RICHARDSON (503) 986-1500

SECRETARY OF STATE

 

.ROV

 

October 23, 2018

Ellen Rosenblum
Attorney General
Justice Building

1162 Court Street NE
Salem, OR 97301

Dear Attorney General Rosenblum,

The Secretary of State and Attorney General are tasked with overseeing the election complaint process
without favoritism. We must rise above the political fray and impartially investigate each case. We have long
worked together to serve this function, and the people demand that we do so moving forward.

On October 4, your office sent unprecedented and unsolicited advice to the Elections Division indicating that
we should suspend investigation into an elections complaint, and you also copied the Governor?s office for
reasons unknown to us. This was contrary to what your office had said previously on August 8, when your
Criminal Division?s Chief Counsel declined to investigate and wrote: ?we are referring the complaint back to
your agency to determine whether any civil or administrative action is appropriate.?

In this case, as with all cases, we followed our normal investigation process. We found insufficient evidence
of an election violation and closed the case on October 19. As we communicated verbally to your office prior
to your unsolicited advice, if we had found sufficient evidence of an election violation but had a legal
question on whether as?applied enforcement was constitutional in these specific facts, we would have
contacted you then. As any lawyer knows, a determination of as-applied constitutionality can only be made
once all the relevant facts are known, and a slight change in those facts can entirely change the legal analysis.

It is difficult to understand your insistence on providing unsolicited advice in this matter without our request
for advice, prior to determination of the very facts necessary to appropriately analyze as-applied
constitutionality, and contrary to your own prior advice. It is even harder to understand your apparent
eagerness to influence this case when your office still has not resolved the 54 cases that we referred to you
over a year ago with clear evidence of illegal voting, or the complaints regarding initiative signature gathering
that we referred to you this summer. Your conduct appears inconsistent with our shared task of impartial
investigation, and we respectfully request that it never be repeated.

Sincerely,

- .1
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Richalagoa? 
Secretary of State