Trump, Vance Opted Out of Oregon’s Voter Guide, Contrary to Online Claims of ‘Voter Fraud’

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Quick Take

Former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, declined to submit candidate statements for Oregon’s voter information pamphlet, according to the secretary of state and the Oregon Republican Party. But social media posts falsely claim the absence of their statements shows state election officials committed “voter fraud.”

Full Story

Oregon has a long-standing practice, dating to 1903, of providing voters with a pamphlet containing information about the candidates in each election. In the 2024 election, both former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, chose not to submit statements for the Oregon Voters’ Pamphlet, the secretary of state and Oregon Republican officials said.

However, a video posted on Facebook on Oct. 21 questioned the absence of statements from the top two Republican candidates, accusing Oregon election officials of “voter manipulation” and “voter fraud.”

“Where JD Vance should be, it’s blank. … They don’t even put Donald Trump on the thing,” the man says in the video.

The suggestion of impropriety was initially made by the conservative account Libs of TikTok on Oct. 10 on X, where it received more than 1 million views, according to the platform. “Oregon voter pamphlets do not include Donald Trump. He also is not listed on the Oregon State Government website under presidential candidates,” the post read. “What’s going on?”

Laura Kerns, a spokesperson for the Oregon secretary of state, told us in an email that the Trump campaign declined to submit statements for the pamphlet. “We reached out repeatedly to the campaign to ensure they were aware of the deadline to submit a statement to the pamphlet and never received a response,” Kerns said.

The pamphlet includes a message under “List of Candidates & Measures” on page 26, which includes the names of Trump and Vance. There are asterisks beside their names, directing readers to a note at the bottom of the page that says, “Candidate chose not to submit a voters’ pamphlet statement.”

Unlike the printed pamphlet, the online version of Oregon’s pamphlet does not list Trump and Vance as candidates. “Only candidates who submitted statements are listed in the online menus,” the online guide says.

Kerns emphasized that no candidate was removed from any official material.

“Donald Trump will absolutely be on the ballot as the Republican candidate for President,” Kerns said.

The Oregon Republican Party also released a statement on Oct. 10, saying, “The decision not to submit a statement was made by the Trump campaign earlier this year. Rest assured: President Trump WILL be on your ballot, along with other strong, common-sense Republican candidates.” Trump had also declined to submit a statement for the primary election earlier this year.

This marks a shift for Trump from previous elections; he was listed in both the 2016 and 2020 Oregon voters’ guides, available online and in print.

“There are always candidates who decline to submit to the voters’ pamphlet each election, but it’s rare for a candidate for such a high-profile office from a major political party to decline,” Kerns said.

Kerns said Trump and Vance were not the only candidates to decline to submit statements for the 2024 general election pamphlet. The others were: presidential candidates Randall Terry of the Constitution Party and Cornel West of the Progressive Party, as well as vice presidential candidates Nicole Shanahan of We The People, Mike ter Maat of the Libertarian Party and Rudolph Ware of the Pacific Green Party.

Oregon has consistently voted for Democratic presidential candidates in recent years, with no Republican winning the state since 1984. Trump lost the state in both 2016 and 2020, receiving about 40% of the vote in each election.

The spread of misinformation about the voters’ pamphlet led to a surge in calls to the state Elections Division, which prompted the office to temporarily shut down its phone lines on Oct. 17, the secretary of state’s office said.

Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.