Despite her own legislative efforts for more stringent requirements to cast a ballot in Oregon, Christine Drazan’s campaign is utilizing the state’s current vote-by-mail system to potentially boost her chances of winning.
Despite her previous efforts to nix Oregon’s vote-by-mail system, Senator Drazan’s gubernatorial campaign staffers say they intend to operate as an unofficial ballot drop site—a tactic sometimes referred to as “ballot harvesting,” in an effort to help voters get their ballots dropped off in time for the November election. The practice typically involves campaigns who collect voters’ completed ballots and turn them in to a drop site or elections office on the person’s behalf.
Drazan, the Republican candidate for governor, was the chief sponsor of House Bill 3872 in 2025–legislation which sought to put a measure on the ballot asking voters to consider changing Oregon’s default voting system to in-person voting on election day, like most other states use. The bill would have also required voters to show ID at polling locations to receive and cast a ballot. The legislation died in the House Committee on Rules. A similar version of the bill was introduced in the Oregon Senate, but also failed.
Audio and video recordings obtained by the Mercury depict Drazan’s campaign staff laying out plans for collecting and dropping off completed ballots in bulk on behalf of voters who otherwise might not mail their ballots or make it to a ballot drop box on time.
“Ballot harvesting, believe it or not, is not against the law, we just gotta get better at doing it,” a campaign staffer can be heard saying in audio recorded during a meeting for campaign workers and volunteers in July. The Drazan campaign worker was responding to questions about how workers and volunteers can effectively reach voters outside the established GOP voter base.
In a Zoom meeting held earlier this week, a campaign staffer explained that a conversation with a voter in Sandy during a phone banking call spurred the idea, at least in part, to have volunteer drivers offer to pick up ballots in some of Oregon’s more rural areas that the Drazan campaign has visited.
“We’re gonna have couriers around the election time for the folks that are unable to drive or unable to get out,” the campaign staffer explained. “I’ve got volunteers that are going out and picking up ballots and dropping off ballots.”
Another person on the Zoom call quickly interjected to ask how the campaign would be insulated from accusations of ballot harvesting, and how volunteers would ensure no one was helping voters fill out their ballots.
“There’s a lot, and we’ve got to make sure we’ve got the unofficial ballot box with exactly the right size and font and everything,” the campaign staffer replied, acknowledging the concern.
It’s legal to collect ballots on behalf of voters and transmit them to a drop-off site, but Oregon maintains strict criteria around the practice when it’s done in bulk. Groups collecting ballots must display signage using 50-point font and all capital letters labeled “not an official ballot drop site.” Anyone collecting a ballot on behalf of someone else must return the ballot within two days or no later than 8 pm on election night.
Ashley Quinton, the Drazan campaign’s communications director, asserts the current state senator and candidate for governor has never opposed mail-in voting, saying Drazan “consistently supported vote-by-mail and continues to support it,” despite having crafted a bill that asked voters to decide whether to replace vote-by-mail with an in-person requirement. Drazan has also called for the state’s voter registration system to be tightened up, after a hiccup in Oregon’s motor-voter registration system led to the accidental addition of about 1,600 people to the state’s voter rolls. Only 17 people were found to have actually cast a ballot after the error, according to a state audit.
“Her concerns are about strengthening our elections and voter confidence, not eliminating Oregonians’ ability to vote by mail,” Quinton explained via email.
Having a third party pick up and deliver ballots isn’t in conflict with Drazan’s efforts to make Oregon’s voting laws more rigid and restrictive, her campaign says.
“There is also no contradiction between supporting improvements to Oregon’s election laws and operating within the laws that currently exist to help lawful voters return completed ballots,” Quinton says. “Oregon law allows a voter to entrust a completed ballot to another person for delivery. A campaign, or volunteers, helping voters lawfully return those ballots is following the law as it exists, not taking a position on whether that law is good or bad.”
Rebecca Tweed is a political strategist who owns Tweed Strategies. She’s handled hundreds of campaigns throughout the state for Republicans, Democrats, and non-partisan candidates.
Tweed says ballot collection is more common among grassroots, progressive campaigns.
“In the campaigns I’ve run and in the more conservative campaigns I’ve experienced, ballot harvesting isn’t something that’s typically part of a traditional campaign plan,” Tweed says, noting many conservative candidates and voters are wary of the practice. “It’s about voter integrity and really trusting the voter got their ballot in. There’s a huge vulnerability for someone to go to their homes and say ‘Hey let me collect your ballot and then go turn it in.’ Typically Republicans aren’t supportive of vote by mail. They want vote at the poll. They want voter ID checks. They want to make sure every voter’s vote is connected to them.”
Jake Weigler has also consulted on hundreds of campaigns, including the 2006 governor’s campaign. Weigler, a partner at political consulting firm Praxis, says using the term “ballot harvesting” sounds like the tactics of an opposition campaign. Nevertheless, campaigns tend to lean on what they think will work, regardless of what they project to the public.
“I’ve never known hypocrisy to be a compelling argument to Republicans. They tend to say ‘Do as I say, not as I do’,” Weigler says, pointing to President Trump’s recent efforts to quash mail-in voting in states like Oregon, under the guise of election tampering, even though the president votes by mail using an absentee ballot.
“From a political science or social science perspective, I think people agree that more people voting is good. Tactics that make it easier for people’s votes to get counted is a good thing,” Weigler adds. “The specter that [unofficial ballot collection] would lead to election fraud or people’s votes not getting counted … is garbage. Someone would have to be willing to engage in a felony and be willing to go to prison,” Weigler notes, all to rack up a few more votes for their preferred candidate.
Drazan will face Governor Tina Kotek in November, the state’s Democrat nominee. Drazan and Kotek previously squared off for the governor’s seat in 2022. It has been 44 years since Oregon elected a Republican governor. That means Drazan’s team will have extra hurdles to overcome if they want to win over voters in a state that consistently votes blue.
“Across Oregon, the progressive machine has always been better at grassroots organizing” Tweed says. “They make up a huge part of the population.”
That likely explains Drazan’s shift in campaign tactics this time around, and the embrace of volunteer ballot drop-offs on behalf of campaign supporters. Those who know they’ve got a loyal pocket of voters in a particular area—as Drazan’s campaign has in Sandy—can ensure they pick up every vote possible by making sure every supporter’s ballot makes it to an elections office on time.
“The Democrats, they do it well,” Drazan’s campaign staffer said, referring to the volunteer ballot collection and drop-off. “I think we need to figure out a game plan on our side…to play their game.”
