By Julia Shumway | Editor
“The purpose of this directive is to provide certainty to local elections officials and to voters alike: Our elections will go forward as they normally do.” — Secretary of State Tobias Read, who issued a directive to Oregon election officials Tuesday clarifying that they must continue following Oregon’s election laws and deadlines despite uncertainty caused by the Trump administration’s attacks on mail voting and ongoing legal battles. Read further directed election officials to document any issues with the U.S. Postal Service, as Attorney General Dan Rayfield stands ready to sue over any actions that prevent Oregonians from exercising their right to vote.
Also in today's edition:
Republican gubernatorial nominee Christine Drazan lays out her plan
EV rebates reopen
Pennsylvania reports nation’s first measles deaths of 2026
And one more thing:
In 1972, a young and homesick country singer from Tennessee sang for a crowd at the Lane County fairgrounds. The warm welcome Dolly Parton received that night inspired the song “Eugene, Oregon,” with a promise to remember the kindness Oregonians showed her for the rest of her life. That life ended yesterday, but Parton’s legacy and the impact she’s had will live on in many ways. In Oregon, the Legislature recently expanded funding for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to send free books to kids and the state’s congressional delegation added sheet music for “Eugene, Oregon” to a congressional time capsule to be opened in 2276.
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By Julia Shumway
Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read speaks to reporters in the state capitol in Salem on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Photo by Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
SALEM — All Oregon voters will receive ballots by mail and should plan to return them by mail or an official dropbox despite a legal setback for states suing to block the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict mail voting, Secretary of State Tobias Read said Tuesday.
RELATED COVERAGE | Active court order still blocking Trump effort to restrict vote-by-mail
By Shaanth Nanguneri
State Sen. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, speaks at a press conference in downtown Portland’s Terry Schrunk Plaza on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (Photo by Shaanth Nanguneri/Oregon Capital Chronicle)
PORTLAND— Oregon Republican gubernatorial nominee Christine Drazan on Tuesday made the case for her agenda to slash taxes, reduce regulations and make state government more accountable to taxpayers, offering some of the clearest details yet on how she plans to tackle the cost of living in the state.
By Alex Baumhardt
An electric vehicle charging at a station in a national park. Oregon’s popular EV rebate program is reopening through Nov. 4, 2026. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)
Oregonians planning to buy or lease an electric vehicle before Nov. 4 can get thousands of dollars from the state to help pay for it.
FROM OUR STATES NEWSROOM PARTNERS
Tennessee’s Dolly Parton dies at 80 after a life of music and giving | Sam Stockard, Tennessee Lookout
Pennsylvania reports nation’s first confirmed measles-related deaths in 2026 | Ian Karbal, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
MORE FROM THE CAPITAL CHRONICLE
Oregon officials vow to keep fighting Trump’s mail voting order | Julia Shumway
OTHER OREGON NEWS Some stories may be behind paywalls.
Commissioners OK agreements for county administrator, county counsel to leave jobs | Lookout Eugene-Springfield
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