SPRINGFIELD – Congresswoman Val Hoyle is on an outreach blitz, hosting virtual and in-person town halls to hear constituents’ concerns about social, political, and economic anxieties surrounding democracy and governance and its local impacts.
Hoyle, who represents Oregon’s 4th Congressional District, most recently held a town hall at Springfield High on March 19, and residents also called into a virtual town hall on March 7.
“You cannot underestimate the power of collective action,” Hoyle said during the virtual meeting. “I represent the people of this district and county, not just those who voted for me. The way we do that is by having town halls.”
The questions raised at both forums spanned national- and state-level issues, including voting rights and election integrity, the treatment of local federal workers, and the protection of vulnerable populations in Lane County.
Immigration was a steadfast topic of the in-person gathering. According to U.S. Census Data, 11.6% of Lane County’s population is diverse, with 10.8% Hispanic. Springfield has a sizable Hispanic community. Cottage Grove has a notable Guatemalan population, too.
In its recent reporting of general news and feature stories, The Chronicle has encountered people from minority communities who have declined to speak on the record. They said they did so because they feared potential repercussions as immigrants.
“There is fearmongering, and people are really afraid,” Hoyle said, encouraging South Lane residents to become educated on their rights, be good neighbors, and “speak up and protect those people who haven’t done anything wrong, other than show up in a broken immigration system.”
At the forum, a Springfield High junior raised concerns about deportations and the treatment of Hispanic immigrants, and Springfield resident Stacy Brown described inconsistencies in how the immigration documentation management process is handled, using her personal family experience – her brother, a naturalized citizen from El Salvador – as context for her stance.
Trans Alliance of Lane County advocate Emily Hillburn sought solutions from Hoyle that would protect transgender people from targeted attacks. Hoyle framed trans rights as a broader civil liberties issue being used as a “distraction method” to take eyes off of more pressing issues for families.
More voices
Tiffany Muller, president of the political action committee End Citizens United, joined the in-person meeting to discuss money’s impact on elections and free speech.
Muller leads an organization to fight money’s political influence, believing in “giving power back to people’s voices,” not just those who can “write the biggest check.” The PAC was formed after the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission reversed campaign finance restrictions, allowing people and companies to spend unlimited money on elections. Muller argued that the reversal “put a for sale sign on our democracy,” adding that “this past election cycle totaled $20 billion.”
Tobias Read, Oregon Secretary of State, joined the virtual meeting and fielded questions about election security, voting rights, social security, and public lands.
Voting threats
Heidi from Corvallis questioned potential threats to upcoming elections, particularly the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act), which would mandate that people provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections.
“The SAVE Act is alarming because it particularly impacts married women,” Read said, explaining that it would prohibit using a driver’s license as voter ID if the name on the license doesn’t exactly match the name on the birth certificate.
He also said it would negatively impact people in rural parts of our state and the country, who would effectively be unable to vote by mail. The law does not explicitly state that “vote by mail is prohibited,” though the requirement for people to show up in person at election offices to verify identity when voting would have that practical effect.
“Think about people who are not near their local election office and would be required to show up in person,” Read said. “We want to make it easier for people who are eligible to vote, not harder … We are a stronger state when more people are participating in our election systems.”
“What’s the harm in requiring IDs to be shown when you submit your ballot?” asked caller Tom from Springfield.
“It’s just an almost incontrovertible statement that we are stronger when our government and policies reflect the preferences of people affected by them. We do check IDs when people register to vote; it’s illegal to vote if you are not eligible to do so, and that’s what our systems are all about … making sure that people who are eligible find it convenient to vote.”
Support for mail-in votes
During the virtual town hall, 71% of poll respondents cited protecting Oregon’s vote-by-mail system as their top concern.
Another caller expressed worries about the potential privatization of the U.S. Postal Service, viewing it as a significant threat to democratic access and rural community services.
“I met with a number of letter carriers last week, and they talked about their concerns, also their commitment to making sure that every single person in this country can get mail service,” Hoyle said on the March 7 call. “We have seen many, many cuts since Louis DeJoy has become the Postmaster General, including closing the Springfield Distribution Center, so someone down in Gold Beach has to now send their letter (300 miles) up to Portland and have it come all the way back down again. That’s not how things should work.”
DeJoy resigned from the position Monday, March 24.
“The U.S. Postal Service is the only agency specifically mentioned in the Constitution, and where we have so many areas that don’t have high-speed internet power, where it takes a long time to get to a pharmacy to get to a store; it’s important that we have postal delivery services,” Hoyle said. “We should not trust private entities with something like the Postal Service.”
Hoyle also told The Chronicle that she hears concerns from constituents in our coverage area about how the federal cuts will affect veteran services, social security, housing, and other local programs.
Hoyle said that we are “living in a post-truth reality,” with different communities having different sets of facts. She added that social media algorithms only reinforce beliefs and misinformation, leading to a lack of diverse perspectives.
“I talk to my neighbors. I talk to people down in the conservative parts of my district, to the most progressive parts, and there were really, really good people with different facts and sets of information,” Hoyle said. “We have to have these conversations, and not just with people who agree with us … We have to talk to our neighbors and have real conversations, and not in a hyperbolic way.”
Hoyle encouraged citizens to have in-person conversations to bridge political divides and help understand different viewpoints.
“Start talking to people in person, as humans, and understand that social media has an algorithm that, by its nature, will feed you things that will make you outraged,” she said. “Because news is now treated as entertainment, and people are addicted to outrage.”
Read stresses disagreement doesn’t mean people can’t recognize their shared futures and encourages people to “get out of your comfort zone and talk to people you might not agree with.”
