Four vie to replace Kimsey as Clark County auditorSubscriber Exclusive

When Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey announced in January he would not be running for reelection, bringing an end to his 27-year tenure as the county’s chief financial executive, it opened the door to a bevy of candidates. Four are competing for the position in the Aug. 4 primary: state Rep. Sharon Wylie, 77, a Democrat representing the 49th Legislative District; former Clark County Councilor Eileen Quiring O’Brien, 78; Vancouver City Councilor Ty Stober, 55; and Mitchell Kelly, 44, who is the reporting and analysis manager for the Clark County Auditor’s Office. Trust in the security and integrity of the local elections overseen by the auditor’s office is a high priority for all four candidates. O’Brien said she would start with an independent audit of every aspect of an election, from signature verification and ballot collections, to how ballots are scanned and sorted. “I would go to the council and ask if they’re possibly able to fund it,” she said. “But if there’s private funding and there’s oversight who’s chosen to do an independent audit, that should work as well.” Stober said every process has room for improvement but that doesn’t mean local elections aren’t safe and secure. “From a physical security standpoint, we’ve got a top-notch department going on,” he said, adding there’s always a need to be vigilant about emerging threats. “Have we done enough? We always need to do more, but we’ve done a pretty darn good job.” One change he said he would have made sooner is adding security cameras in the elections office and at ballot dropboxes. Stober also said voter turnout in Clark County continues to underperform when compared with the rest of the state. “It’s long been my desire to be in a position to try and affect that, to make change. But I also realize that this office is four different distinct departments. It’s not just elections, it’s finance, it’s public records and it’s also auto licensing,” he said. Kelly said the elections office has a lot of precautions in place to ensure elections run smoothly, such as signature verification, chain of custody and ensuring ballots are secure. “There’s a lot of checks and balances throughout the process to make sure that the outcome of the election is accurate and tabulated correctly. But there’s always room for improvement,” he said. Identifying the public’s concerns about election security should be the first step. “I would reach out and nail down what people are thinking about. Every concern needs to be addressed,” Wylie said. “We’ve got a lot of information flowing around, a lot of opinions. I think that those opinions need to be answered, either individually or in a more general way for the public to build their trust.” President Donald Trump’s efforts to limit mail-in voting would be supported by one candidate: O’Brien. She said mail-in voting remains too popular with voters currently, but if public opinion ever changes direction, O’Brien said she supports a return to in-person voting. “Thirty years ago we didn’t have vote by mail. When you don’t have vote by mail and people are coming to the polls, you don’t have boxes to blow up and have fires in them and you don’t lose chain of custody. Once that ballot leaves the elections office and heads out to the addressee, you don’t know where it is,” she said. Wylie said mail-in voting is popular because it works. She said the issue isn’t with counting ballots but the mail service. “Over the last 50 years, there’s been an effort to undermine our post office. This is part of our original Constitution for our country, to have a postal service,” Wylie said. “We need to make sure that it’s as good as it can be.” For Stober, the real concern is voter turnout. In the 2025 primary election, turnout was about 27 percent, one of the lowest turnouts in county history. Stober said he wants to focus on ways to drive voter turnout earlier in the election cycle. “Part of (the challenge) is that we exist in the Portland media market bubble. How do we break through that with a good communication strategy to get more people engaged in the voting process?” he said. The spread of misinformation has eroded the public’s trust in elections, Kelly said, which isn’t likely to change with either in-person or mail-in voting. Instead, he said the county must be more transparent and help voters understand how elections work. “I think it’s being more open and more transparent about all of the processes that have been established and are being complied with and the secure nature of every single step along the way, being available to answer questions,” Kelly said. With both Wylie and O’Brien in their 70s, age may be a concern for some voters. But both candidates said they have the energy and experience to take on the challenging role of auditor. O’Brien said her age simply shows the experience she’s gained that is needed to do the job. “I should be a judge of myself, of what I can do, and I can do it,” she said. In her role as chair of the Clark County Council, O’Brien said she regularly worked with the auditor’s office and other elected officials and departments. She served on the council from January 2017 to March 2022 before resigning shortly after being reelected. “I know how budgets work and how government budgets work, and I certainly know that they really should work for the people. I think I will add a lot to that office in the sense that it will be a fresh (set of) eyes,” she said. Wylie, who was first elected to the state House of Representatives in 2011, said picking the right candidate is not about a number but finding the person who can hit the ground running and be a good manager. “I’ve lived a lot of years, and I’ve seen a lot of politics. We are at a point where we need to restore trust in our democracy. We need to make sure our elections are secure. It’s not about tenure,” Wylie said. Rather than age, Kelly said the most important thing is for voters to evaluate the experience and qualifications of the person that’s running for the office. “Just see me as someone who’s truly nonpartisan, that has worked with many different people across governments and citizens providing accurate and reliable information,” he said. “I think that that’s what people should really focus on — the qualification and the experience and the ability to carry out the auditor’s duties.” Stober said the county — and the auditor’s office in particular — benefited greatly from the stability that Kimsey brought to the role. However, it’s the candidate and their qualifications, not their age, that should be the deciding factor. “This is not a role that can easily be walked into and out of. Being able to make a … multiterm commitment to the office, I think is very important for the health of the office and the service to the people of Clark County,” Stober said. The top two vote-getters in the primary will advance to the Nov. 3 general election.

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