Tina Kotek Is Skeptical of a Multnomah County Proposal to Let Undocumented Residents Vote

Kotek calls the charter reform proposal “costly and complicated.”

Tina Kotek at a Wonder Ballroom rally on Oct. 22. (Blake Benard)
By Nigel Jaquiss

One of the most unusual proposals on the Nov. 8 ballot comes to Multnomah County voters from the county—not city—Charter Review Committee. Measure 26-231 would extend the right to vote in county elections to noncitizens.

In a recent interview with the three leading candidates for governor, we asked each of them what they thought about the idea.

Democrat Tina Kotek, who might be expected to be the most supportive, said she hadn’t yet read the measure carefully, but it sounded “really costly and complicated.”

Her opponents, Republican Christine Drazan and unaffiliated candidate Betsy Johnson, proved no more enthusiastic. Here’s the (brief) tape:


Nigel Jaquiss

Nigel Jaquiss

Reporter Nigel Jaquiss joined the Oregon Journalism project in 2025 after 27 years at Willamette Week.

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