A disputed result from the May election in Douglas County is causing ripples throughout the state, as the CEO of a small government agency refuses to accept—or pay his agency’s share of—an election whose outcome could cost him his position.
That agency’s director, Ben Edtl, is a Tualatin-based political consultant who is also the primary petitioner for a 2026 ballot initiative to repeal Oregon’s pioneering vote-by-mail system. Edtl, 47, is a rising star in the MAGA wing of the Oregon Republican Party.
He also runs Douglas County’s public transportation agency. In April, he was named full-time CEO of the Umpqua Public Transportation District, which serves approximately 110,000 people in the state’s ninth most populous county.
The May 20 election included races for five seats on the transit district’s board of directors, but only four were contested.
In all four of those races, a challenger defeated the incumbent, sweeping an election that Edtl described as a referendum on his leadership. His side lost.
Edtl was understandably displeased. More remarkably, he sent a letter to Douglas County Clerk Dan Loomis on June 30 declaring that he and the incumbent board “find the circumstances surrounding this race deeply concerning and unacceptable.”
According to election officials, the most pressing issue they may face following a closely contested election is a possible recount. However, the outcome of the Umpqua transit district race, which Edtl and his board are contesting, was decided by 238 votes out of 10,102 cast, far exceeding the one-fifth of 1% margin that automatically triggers a recount.
To be clear, Edtl is not requesting a recount. He says he and his board will not accept the outcome—and, according to documents obtained by the Oregon Journalism Project through a public records request, they are unwilling to pay for their agency’s share of the cost of the May election: $32,112.76.
In his letter, Edtl stated that he and the board were “expressly refusing certification” for one of the four election results “until and unless transparency is provided in alignment with federal law.”
Edtl’s stance has election officials across the state scratching their heads. Several of them convened a conference call on July 7 to provide an update on the situation in Douglas County.
The Oregon Association of County Clerks’ president, Klamath County Clerk Rochelle Long, describes Edtl’s strategy as novel. “I have never seen this happen before,” Long says.
Tim Scott, Multnomah County Elections Director, is equally perplexed. “In 23 years of election administration, I have never seen a jurisdiction reject certification,” Mr. Scott claims.
Edtl is playing both short- and long-term games. In the short term, he wants to keep his job. He sees contesting the election as his best chance of doing so.
In the long run, he hopes to raise awareness and support for his larger goal: undermining public trust in and then repealing Oregon’s first-in-the-nation practice of conducting elections entirely by mail.
“Look, Douglas County leans heavily Republican,” Edtl tells the Oregon Journalism Project. “What this election shows you is that Republicans cheat as well, and it shows those who have power use vote-by-mail to hold on to it.”
Edtl refuses to accept Todd Vaughn’s loss. Vaughn, an incumbent, filed a petition for review of his race in Douglas County Circuit Court on June 24, alleging “illegal votes” and “nondeliberate and material error in the distribution of official ballots by a local elections official.”
Vaughn, a logger and wildland firefighter, offered no specifics beyond his belief that he had been wronged. “Having been significantly ahead in the election-day results, and then losing by an even larger number a week later, this election is considered suspect,” according to him.
The background of the candidate who appeared to defeat him, Natasha Atkinson, CEO of Umpqua Homes, a Douglas County provider of housing for people with disabilities, may shed light on the underlying dispute.
Last October, Atkinson resigned from the transit district’s board, telling Jefferson Public Radio that she was concerned about the board being taken over by “America First Republicans.”
The board’s decision in September to hire Edtl, a GOP legislative candidate for an Oregon House seat in Tualatin, as interim director, was the final straw, she said. (Edtl, who ran a failed coffee company during the pandemic, unsuccessfully ran for legislative seats in the Portland metropolitan area in 2022 and 2024.)
Earlier in 2024, Edtl supported and advised Vaughn’s primary challenge to incumbent state Sen. David Brock Smith (R-Port Orford). Vaughn lost the race, but the bruising campaign raised Edtl’s profile in Southern Oregon and drew the attention of the Umpqua transit district board, which Vaughn served on. Edtl admits that his only transit experience was riding TriMet as a child in Portland.
“If it was a functioning district…then I would say fine,” Atkinson told JPR about Edtl’s new role as CEO. “Hiring someone from outside of the transportation industry can sometimes result in great innovations, right? But we aren’t. (The agency’s audited financials show it lost $1.1 million in 2024 on a budget of approximately $6 million.)
On April 21, a month before the May election, the transit board confirmed Edtl’s appointment to the $130,000-a-year post. “I’ve hired a lot of leaders in my private sector career, and Ben is without a doubt the best hire I’ve made,” board vice chair John Estill stated at the time. Edtl says he commuted from Tualatin once a week and, despite his lack of transit management experience, saved the agency from insolvency.
“We did a complete DOGE of the district,” he explains. “We saved $600,000 on basic stuff.”
Edtl claims, however, that the May board election was a referendum on him, with board members who opposed his appointment now holding a 5-2 majority.
“They want me out,” Edtl explains. “We’re having a board meeting on July 19, and I guarantee they are going to fire me.”
Michaela Hammerson, one of his two transit board supporters, is a co-petitioner on Edtl’s statewide ballot initiative to end vote-by-mail in 2026.
Edtl spoke with OJP from Washington, D.C., where he says he is meeting with national Republican groups interested in funding his anti-vote-by-mail campaign. “The Republican National Committee is on board, and the White House knows what we’re doing out here in Oregon,” says Edtl.
Tobias Read, Oregon’s Secretary of State, oversees state elections. He is watching the Douglas County situation with dismay. “In Oregon, we respect the people’s will, whether we agree with it or not.
“You don’t get to deny the results of an election simply because you don’t like them,” Read says. “Our founders fought for our sacred right to vote, and a few financially motivated election deniers don’t get to disrespect Oregonians by refusing to accept their votes.”
Edtl attempted to appeal to Loomis’ partisan loyalty in his letter denying election certification on June 30.
“As one Republican to another, I want to note that our concerns are not isolated to this district,” wrote Edtl in a letter. His plea fell on deaf ears.
“It was weird that he referenced that [party affiliation],” according to Loomis. “It is just a strange thing. If he is looking for a favor, that will not happen.”
Loomis spoke with state election officials about Edtl’s letter. In an email to Oregon Elections Division director Dena Dawson on June 30, Loomis described the process his team used in Douglas County.
“The ballot opening and counting process was conducted with full transparency and included numerous opportunities for observation and oversight,” according to Loomis.
“This maintains public trust and protects the integrity of the outcome. While it is not uncommon for a losing candidate to question the results, the facts are clear: the election was properly conducted, thoroughly documented, and certified in accordance with the law.”
In an email to Secretary Read’s two top aides on July 1, Dawson stated that Loomis followed all procedures correctly. “I reviewed the district’s justifications and Dan’s responses, and Dan is spot on at every turn, in my opinion,” said Dawson.
On July 2, Loomis filed a point-by-point rebuttal of Vaughn and Edtl’s claims in Douglas County Circuit Court, urging the court to uphold the May election results. A decision is expected soon.
