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DROP BOXES LAG BEHIND BALLOTS: In September, with Donald Trump threatening to use the U.S. Postal Service to undermine Oregon’s vote-by-mail system, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read urged Oregonians to use the state’s more than 300 ballot drop boxes rather than send away their ballots in the mail. To that end, Read persuaded the Legislature to allocate $618,000 in emergency funds so his office could add 20 new drop boxes around the state. “Secretary Read’s work to maintain access to vote by mail is essential during this time of unprecedented federal challenges to our elections,” House Speaker Julie Fahey (D-West Eugene) said on Sept. 10. As of press deadlines this week, 17 of the new drop boxes were online and able to accept ballots, according to Read’s office. But of these, only three had been installed by Oct. 14: the date ballots began reaching voters, a major milestone in the election calendar. A fourth and fifth—in Deschutes and Lane counties—were added Oct. 15. The remaining new drop boxes were installed between Oct. 21 and 26. Secretary of state spokeswoman Tess Seger says much logistics go into installing a ballot drop box, which slowed the process. In Tillamook County, for instance, installation required an underground scan for buried utilities and securing a contractor able to work off-hours. “The goal is still to get to 20 total drop boxes by Election Day,” Seger said, “but even getting to 15 is pretty remarkable.”
LA MOTA CEO SOUGHT TO SEVER FORMAL TIES: Earlier this month, Rosa Cazares, the CEO of the troubled cannabis chain La Mota, was indicted by a federal grand jury on eight counts of tax fraud. Federal prosecutors allege Cazares, who runs La Mota with her longtime business and sometimes domestic partner Aaron Mitchell, failed to pay $1.5 million in employment taxes in 2020 and 2021. (The couple gained notoriety after WW revealed in 2023 that then-Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan had signed a consulting contract with the couple; less than a week later, she resigned from office.) New records obtained by WW show that in June—four months prior to her indictment—Cazares asked the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission to strip her name from all La Mota-related licenses, essentially removing her from a leadership role on any license. (The OLCC database shows 41 active La Mota licenses.) “My resignation is effective September 1, 2026. As of that date, I will no longer serve in any leadership or management capacity with any of the La Mota entities,” Cazares wrote, adding: “Until further notice, I should not be treated as an active or responsible party on any La Mota license or application.” It’s unclear why Cazares made this move, though it’s likely at this point she was aware she was the subject of a federal investigation.
TAKE 2 FOR INSURANCE EXCHANGE: Oregon’s effort to build out Cover Oregon, a $300 million state-run health insurance exchange, catastrophically failed in 2014—leading to an ugly legal fight with the developer, Oracle, and forcing 100,000-plus Oregonians getting their health benefits through the Affordable Care Act exchange to do it on Healthcare.gov ever since. This coming Nov. 1, Oregon is set to try again. The Oregon Health Authority says the new state-run health insurance exchange Explore Health has a $93 million budget—for implementation and five years of maintenance and operations. The primary outside contractor, Vimo Inc., signed up with OHA in August 2025 to provide application, infrastructure, hosting and cloud computing services, as well as application software related to the state-based marketplace. Asked what the agency is doing differently after the Cover Oregon troubles, OHA spokeswoman Amy Coven says it is not trying to integrate fully with the state’s Medicaid platform and it is using a baseline system successfully implemented in nine other states. When lawmakers approved the Explore Health project 2023, backers promised it would bring greater flexibility and cost savings, increase access to data, and facilitate expanded coverage. But the launch date arrives at a time of major tumult in the commercial health insurance market, which more insurers and consumers are abandoning as costs spiral upward.
KOTEK MAKES PEACE WITH UNIVERSAL PRESCHOOL: At the Harmony Montessori School in Gresham on Oct. 23, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek met with families and state child care leaders in an effort to promote her work to help the state reach universal preschool. Kotek, who convened an expert panel on the topic in February, said she was prepared to receive the panel’s first set of recommendations in early November. The line of inquiry, in Kotek’s words: “What is it about our current system of early learning programs that need adjustments so they can integrate better [and] work more seamlessly for our parents?” The governor said it will take the state about four years to ramp up to universal preschool, and that she anticipates it will utilize a mixed delivery model, integrating the various programs into one system easier for families to navigate. And Kotek said the state is learning a lot from an unexpected ally: Preschool for All. It’s a dramatic shift from last summer, when Kotek warned that the program, funded by a marginal income tax on higher earners in Multnomah County, was driving taxpayers out of the state and needed to increase its budget transparency. On Oct. 23, Kotek said “we need to see expanded” programs like the county initiative. When Kotek came into WW’s offices earlier this month for an endorsement interview, she further clarified that any concerns she raised about Preschool for All were because the program was “so important to families and so transformative” that “it has to be sustainable and it has to be reaching the goals.” Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson sounded a note of caution. “While this work is welcome,” she said, “I want to be very clear: It must not limit or undermine Multnomah County’s commitment to voters to deliver universal preschool and continue Preschool for All’s growth and success.”
