Ben Edtl Becomes First Government Official in Oregon History to Refuse Certification of a Fraudulent Election – Triggers Immediate Retaliatory Investigation by Secretary of State Tobias Read
“Blowing the whistle is a bare minimum duty of an elected official.”
Roseburg, OR – June 30, 2025 – Today, I became the first government official in Oregon history to formally refuse to certify the results of a rigged election.
In the May 20, 2025 special election for Umpqua Public Transit District Position 4, incumbent Todd Vaughn led by 82 votes on election night. Eight days later, Douglas County Clerk Dan Loomis certified a “final” count that handed the victory to his preferred candidate by 238 votes — thanks to thousands of late mail-in ballots that appeared under highly suspicious circumstances with zero verifiable chain-of-custody.
As CEO of the Umpqua Public Transit District, I sent a letter to Clerk Loomis declaring that the board found the circumstances “deeply concerning and unacceptable.” We expressly refused to certify that one race until real transparency was provided in line with federal law. We also refused to pay the district’s share of the election costs until the county explained the irregularities.
This was not politics. This was the bare minimum duty of any honest public servant. When the system produces miracle late ballots that flip results with no accountability, someone has to say no. I did.
The Oregon establishment’s response was swift and predictable. On July 29, 2025, the Secretary of State’s Elections Division — under Tobias Read — opened an official investigation into me and the Umpqua Public Transit District. They didn’t investigate the suspicious ballots or the clerk’s handling of the election. Instead, they targeted the whistleblower for the crime of demanding honesty and refusing to rubber-stamp a questionable outcome. The investigation was requested by Dan Loomis himself!
The investigation claimed I violated state election law by refusing to certify the result and by not immediately paying the county. In reality, it was pure retaliation: weaponize state power against anyone who dares expose the fatal flaws in Oregon’s unsecured vote-by-mail system.
This sequence proves the point we’ve been making all along. The same machine that can’t and won’t prove our elections are secure will punish anyone who tries to force transparency. They don’t want oversight; they want obedience.
My refusal to certify was the beginning of an ongoing saga. It led directly to the landmark Vaughn v. Loomis lawsuit that is now heading toward trial, exposing the black box of Oregon’s mail-in voting once and for all.
Oregon must prove our elections are secure. They won’t. They can’t. That’s exactly why IP37 exists: to end this dangerous experiment and restore real, verifiable elections the people can trust.
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