Suspicious robocalls warn of voter registration problems
SALEM, Ore. - State and county government offices have received dozens of complaints from voters about pre-recorded phone calls telling them their voter registrations may be out of date.
The calls are not coming from voter registration offices and local officials said most voter registration information is up to date.
Portland resident and military veteran Mark Balcom said he got one of the calls last Friday night.
"I immediately thought this is some kind of fraud," he said.
Balcom said he remembered the message on the phone as saying "one or more persons in this household will not be receiving a mail in ballot because your file has been marked inactive."
The message ended with a number to call to “fix" the problem but Balcom said was not able to write down the number at the time.
The Oregon Secretary of State's office said they don’t know the motive behind the calls. The Oregon Attorney General's Office said they are looking into whether the calls are also going to phone numbers on the "do not call" list.
When a KATU News reporter called the phone number listed on Balcom's caller ID, we just got a busy signal.
Balcom notified his friends about the fraud but said he wanted to warn more people.
"I'm afraid there are people who will fall for it," he said.
Voters can check their current registration status online here. Potential voters have until October 16 to register to vote for the upcoming election.
I received one of those phone calls Friday. Â I couldn't write down the phone # fast enough so just contacted Lane Co. voter people and sure enough there was an issue with one of my family members registration like they said. Â The lady I talked to said she didn't know who was putting out these calls but glad I called them. Â May be the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. Â I did NOT have to give any information other than names so if you do call the number the robocall leaves do NOT give them any information other than your name.
2000 called,they want their phone back.
Do a reverse look up of the phone number.