Oregon has joined 17 other states in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to guarantee that the petitions collected for citizen initiatives remain public records.
Last Tuesday, Oregon joined 17 other states in an amicus curiae brief filed by Ohio in Doe v. Reed, which asks the court to find that initiative petitions are exempt from state public records laws and may be kept secret. The court will hear oral arguments in the case April 28.
Attorney General John Kroger explained the position of those filing the brief, in terms of Oregon’s commitment to open government, “Oregon has a compelling interest in preventing election fraud, ensuring the integrity of its elections and promoting open government,” said Attorney General Kroger. “I really appreciate Secretary of State Brown’s leadership on this issue.” He went on to say that designating initiative petitions as secret would violate Oregon’s long tradition of open government and undermine public confidence in the citizen initiative system, which has been a critical part of Oregon’s political culture for 108 years.
In recent years, other states have experienced incidents of petition fraud. In 2006 alone, the Montana Supreme Court invalidated every signature collected by non-resident petition circulators and three ballot initiatives because the circulators engaged in bait-and-switch tactics. The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down an initiative petition because of a pervasive pattern of wrongdoing and fraud in the signature collection process, and a federal district court concluded that circulators misrepresented the purpose of a Michigan initiative petition.
Doe v. Reed began with a citizen effort to reverse a domestic partnership law passed in 2009 by the Washington Legislature. Opponents turned in enough signatures to place the referendum on the November 2009 ballot. Voters rejected the effort and upheld the law.
Independent groups sought the names of the voters who signed the petitions and supporters of the measure sued Secretary of State Sam Reed, hoping to keep the signers’ names secret. The challenge to Washington’s open records law was rejected at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit and now will be heard by Supreme Court, a decision is expected by early summer.
So what do you think? Should petitions be public record or should the become private after they’ve been turned in?
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