A Weird Election Gets Weirder

            The nasty Coos County Commissioner race between incumbent Melissa Cribbins and challenger Rod Taylor is almost over – or perhaps it is not.

            Bizarre litigation filed in Coos County Circuit Court asks a Judge to void the May primary election results for Coos County Commissioner candidates and order the County to hold a new election for these offices. If granted this order would require both Commissioners Cribbins and Sweet to again stand for election regardless of the outcome of the November vote.

            John Sweet secured his reelection by winning more than 50% of the primary vote. Ms. Cribbins narrowly missed getting over 50% of the primary vote.  She faces second place finisher Rod Taylor.

            The lawsuit also asks the Court to prohibit Commissioners Cribbins and Sweet from starting “new terms of office until the results of a new properly held election take place.” This new election would almost certainly take place after the new year, perhaps months later.  After January 1, 2023 the three-person Board of Commissioners would lack a quorum and be unable to do business. 

            In a press release Commissioner Cribbins said the lawsuit is a “politically motivated attempt by my political opponent’s ally’s to discredit Coos County’s election process.”  The plaintiffs in the suit are Pam Lewis and Diane Rich.  Both are members of Rod Taylor’s notorious group Citizens Restoring Liberty.  Both were unsuccessful candidates in the May primary for respectively, County Commissioner and County Clerk.

            The plaintiffs did not file their litigation until after the May primary results were officially certified.  Neither filed a complaint with Oregon Secretary of State who has authority to investigate and punish election law violations.  A timely complaint to the Secretary of State would likely have been investigated and the result made public before the general election.  It is telling that Ms. Lewis and Ms. Rich did not choose this option.

            The Lewis and Rich law suit are a tiny part of the vast election litigation in America.  No court has yet found evidence of significant fraud.  If successful the law suit against the County would disenfranchise Coos County voters and damage County Government.  I’ll return to this issue in a future article.

            Mr. Taylor has made this a very strange election.  When Mary Geddry questioned his fitness for office Mr. Taylor sent her an October 5^th e-mail saying, “You might consider emailing my wife on the subject of my fitness; we enjoy madly passionate love making with regularity – some days several times.”  Perhaps this is more than we need to know?

            Mr. Taylor continues to tell amazing fables.  Perhaps the most dramatic of these tales is that Coos County can become prosperous by stealing federal timber and restore liberty by breaking laws.