Camas resident Tony Teso replies to an opinion by Lars Larson
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and may not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
The Colorado case is real but misrepresented. The 372,000 figure refers to routine list maintenance — removing people who moved, died, or became ineligible — not “fraud.” Courts ordered Colorado to comply with NVRA maintenance procedures. That’s the opposite of the implication.
Tony Teso
The DOJ outreach framing is doing heavy lifting. The actual legal dispute is about whether the federal government can demand voter roll data in ways that potentially conflict with state privacy laws and the NVRA’s own restrictions on pre-election purges. Oregon and Washington aren’t refusing to clean their rolls — they’re contesting federal jurisdiction and timing. That’s a legitimate legal question, not evidence of concealment.
The ballot measure argument is genuinely interesting but proves less than he thinks. It’s true Oregon and Washington voters sometimes support conservative ballot measures while electing Democrats. That’s not anomalous — it’s ticket-splitting and initiative dynamics. Voters regularly separate candidate choices from issue positions. The inference that this gap must reflect fraud rather than normal electoral behavior isn’t supported.
The underlying logic is unfalsifiable. Any evidence of Democratic wins becomes evidence of fraud; any evidence of conservative ballot measure support becomes proof the “real” electorate is conservative. It’s a closed loop.
The interesting analytical kernel buried in here — that initiative outcomes and candidate outcomes diverge significantly in these states — is worth taking seriously on its own terms. But Larson uses it to smuggle in a fraud hypothesis that the evidence doesn’t support.
Tony Teso
Camas
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