Trump missing from Oregon voter pamphlet -- because he opted out

"EXCLUSIVE: The Sec. Of State of Oregon, LaVonne Griffin-Valade has REMOVED President Trump and JD Vance from the official State website 19 days before the election!" says an October 17, 2024 post on Instagram from Jeremy Herrell, founder of a conservative podcast and media network called LFA TV. "This is election interference, and I need you all to get involved on this one!"

All-caps text over the video, in which Herrell recites the same allegations while demonstrating that Trump and Vance are missing from the state's online voters' pamphlet, says: "Oregon sec of state removes Trump & Vance from website!!"

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Screenshot from Instagram taken October 24, 2024

Similar posts spread across platforms as Oregon, which conducts its elections entirely by mail, distributed its voters' guides ahead of the November 5 vote pitting Trump against Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

The pamphlets, issued to every Oregon household and also posted in digital form online, share deadlines, voter registration information, candidate statements, ballot measures and other information (archived here).

But the Trump campaign -- not Oregon's top elections official -- was responsible for his absence from the guide.

The claims accusing LaVonne Griffin-Valade of "election interference" or "voter manipulation" are inaccurate.

"It is false to say he was 'removed' from our website," said Laura Kerns, communications director for the secretary of state, told AFP in an October 23 email. "Candidates may submit a statement to the voters’ pamphlet, but it is optional. In this case, as he did for the primary in May, Donald Trump declined to provide a statement."

Kerns said the office "reached out repeatedly" to the Trump campaign but never received a response, and that Griffin-Valade's position is that every leading candidate should feature in the pamphlet.

She added: "Donald Trump will absolutely be on the ballot as the Republican candidate for President."

A sample ballot for Multnomah County, the most populous county in the state that includes the city of Portland, indeed lists Trump and Vance alongside the Democratic ticket and other third-party candidates (archived here). The former president is also included in the secretary of state's candidate ballot statement (archived here).

The secretary of state has made clear on social media why Trump's name does not feature on the guide -- even responding to some users spreading false and misleading claims on X (archived here, here and here).

A note pinned prominently to the top of the online version of the pamphlet, meanwhile, says: "Candidates are not required to file voters' pamphlet statements. Only candidates who submitted statements are listed in the online menus. All candidates will appear on ballots."

The Oregon Republican Party also released a statement and responded to Herrell's video on social media to clarify that Trump is not included in the guide by his own choice (archived here and here).

Yet the misinformation has still made its mark.

The secretary of state's office said in an October 17 press release that its elections division was forced to close its phone lines after being overwhelmed by out-of-state callers responding to the false information (archived here).

"Oregonians who need assistance will now have to wait because some individuals operating in bad faith are misleading people online," Griffin-Valade said, according to the release.

Trump is not the only presidential candidate who is listed on Oregon's ballots but not the voters' pamphlet. Third-party candidates Cornel West, Chase Oliver and Randall Terry are also missing from the guide.

Several down-ballot candidates also did not submit their information.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about the US election here.