Think Out Loud

The general election is now over, wrapping up months of planning, assistance and coordination among the state’s 36 county clerks. They are responsible for mailing off ballots, registering voters and overseeing elections in local, state and federal races in Oregon. More than a third of them this year also administered a presidential election in Oregon for the first time.    County clerks have had to do their jobs while facing budget cuts, the spread of misinformation and threats of physical violence and intimidation directed against them and election workers. Some have also had to reassure residents about the safety and security of Oregon’s vote-by-mail system after the recent arson attacks on ballot boxes in Multnomah County and Vancouver, according to Rochelle Long, the Klamath County Clerk and president of the Oregon Association of County Clerks.  Long joins us to discuss the challenges Oregon county clerks prepared for and confronted during the general election.

Republican Cliff Bentz has won his reelection for Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District, the largest congressional district in Oregon that represents around two-thirds of the state, comprising everything east of the Willamette Valley. We hear from Bentz and others in response to this week’s election results. Meghan Moyer won a position on Multnomah County Commission, representing District 1. Craig Roberts was elected as chair of the Clackamas County Commission. We’ll also hear from Oregon U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley about governing in the minority in a Trump administration.

Members of OPB’s politics team join us to provide analysis and share the latest updates on Oregon races in the general election. They’ll discuss the results of statewide ballot measures and analyze some of the congressional district races, as well as the latest developments in Portland’s historic elections to choose a new mayor and expand the city council from five seats to 12. We’ll also hear from some of the candidates who won or are leading in statewide and US Congressional races.

In the 1970s, some scientists proposed that Earth and its life forms are a single, self-regulating system. At the time, the "Gaia hypothesis" was widely criticized. But since then, the concept of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance. Portland-based science writer Ferris Jabr’s new book, “Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life,” describes how the living and nonliving components of the planet work together as an integrated whole. Ferris Jabr joined us at the 2024 Pickathon Experiential Music Festival.

The BPA owns 75% of the transmission lines in the Northwest. It has proposed 13 new projects to upgrade and expand the region’s power grid to accommodate growing energy needs. Oregon and other Northwest states have ambitious carbon emissions reduction targets that they can’t hit unless the power grid expands. Those goals will be impossible to meet without much more energy generated from renewables or other alternatives to fossil fuel. CEO John Hairston joins us with all the details.

Oregon recently launched a pilot program to provide liability coverage for prescribed burns that don’t go as intended. The program covers up to $1 million in damages per burn. It’s being managed in tandem with the state’s certified burn manager program, which provides training on how to safely and effectively use prescribed fire on a variety of landscapes. Taken together, the two programs are meant to make it easier and less risky for businesses and contractors to conduct prescribed burns in the state. Amanda Rau is the statewide prescribed fire coordinator for the Oregon Department of Forestry. She joins us to talk more about the programs and how she hopes they’ll increase the use of prescribed fire in Oregon.

Newport is the first city on the Oregon Coast to adopt a new estuary management plan in more than 40 years. The city jointly manages the Yaquina Bay Estuary with Lincoln County and the city of Toledo. The three entities use the plan to determine what kind of development can happen in what parts of the estuary.  The updated version requires developers to perform climate vulnerability assessments for all projects in the estuary. It also includes a commitment from Newport city leaders to revisit the plan and update it periodically as the estuary faces new climate impacts, such as rising sea levels and warming ocean temperatures.  Annie Merrill is the estuaries and ocean manager for the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition. She joins us to talk more about estuaries and the risks they face in a changing climate.

Misinformation around election season has been spreading, including false claims that  Donald Trump is not appearing as a candidate on Oregon’s Voter Pamphlet to some Pennsylvania ballots being destroyed. Stephen Prochaska is a doctoral student at the University of Washington Information School and a graduate research assistant at the Center for an Informed Public. He joins us to share more on the strategy behind the spread of misinformation and what to expect before, and after, Election Day. 

Astoria’s Billie McBride was crowned Miss Trans Oregon earlier this year. That means she’ll be vying for the Miss Trans USA title at the national pageant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from Nov. 7-10. A former business owner and an avid figure skater, McBride now spends her time advocating against anti-trans legislation. She joins us in the studio to talk more about her life and how she hopes the pageant will amplify her activism.

This week, a coalition of over 100 elected officials, arts organizations, labor unions and chambers of commerce signed a letter urging calm and “thoughtful civic engagement” on election day, and to preserve the “hard-won but still fragile progress” in Downtown Portland.  Amid rising concerns about possible civil unrest next week, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said there would be increased police presence, with officers canceling days off and working 12-hour shifts. A special unit of officers under the recently reconstituted Rapid Response Team will also be deployed for crowd control. Portland Police Chief Bob Day joins us to share more details about the agency’s preparedness for election day, what lessons it learned from its response to the 2020 racial justice protests and an update on what the police know about the suspected arsonist who placed incendiary devices into ballot boxes in Portland and Vancouver recently.