Callers responding to a false election claim overwhelm Oregon officials

Oregon election officials were screening phone and email messages Friday after their system was overwhelmed and shut down because of a barrage of calls from people responding to a false claim that the state’s voter pamphlet doesn’t include Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The pamphlet does list Trump as a candidate, and Trump will be on the ballot in Oregon. What the pamphlet doesn’t include is a statement about why people should vote for him. That’s because the president didn’t submit one, the Oregon GOP said in a statement.

The false claim has continued to spread on social media, however, and on Thursday, the Oregon Secretary of State Elections Division said it shut down the phone lines after being overwhelmed by out-of-town callers. They made adjustments Friday to deal with the ongoing deluge.

“Our phones are back up, but in this case, it would be more accurate to say that we will be screening voicemails,” spokesperson Laura Kerns told The Associated Press. “Oregonians who call with specific, answerable questions about the election will be prioritized for a return call.”

The department’s email system was also overwhelmed by people commenting on the false claim, prompting officials to prioritize responses to Oregonians with “answerable questions,” Kerns said. She added that the office plans to fully reopen by Monday.

People on social media continued to spread the false claim on Friday. One person on X asked Elon Musk to spread the word that the Oregon Secretary of State removed Trump from the pamphlet, while another posted the agency’s phone number alongside the message CALL NOW.

“Oregonians who need assistance will now have to wait because some individuals operating in bad faith are misleading people online,” Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade said in a news release. “Spreading rumors and false claims of election interference does nothing to help Oregonians.”