If you take a look at our tag cloud, you’ll notice that we talk about the ballot initiative process a LOT on this blog. Our initiative process, known as the ‘Oregon System’ is a vital part of our political DNA and one of the most powerful tools for voters to express their collective will. With signature verification for initiative petitions having just ended, we wanted to outline the process a bit as well as provide some resources that may be helpful as you hear about the process in the news.
What makes a signature valid?
First and foremost, as with voting, only citizens who can legally vote in Oregon are eligible to sign a petition signature sheet. Next, only active, registered voters will count in the total verified signatures required to place an initative on the ballot and the signer must be active at the time he or she signs the petition signature sheet. If any Oregon voter is unsure of their registration status, they can look it up here.
Who verifies the signatures for initiative petitions?
The Secretary of State’s Elections division is responsible for conducting signature verification for state initiative petitions.
What are elections officials looking for?
Essentially, elections officials are looking to ensure two things: that all circulators are following the statutory requirements and administrative rules that govern signature gathering and to make sure that the signatures gathered are valid active electors.
In accordance with Oregon elections law, a petition sheet can be rejected for insufficient circulator certification for any number of reasons, including:
- no signature whatsoever appears below the certification
- no date appears next to circulator’s signature or the date is crossed out
- the date of the circulator certification is earlier than the date of the electors’ signatures, unless the circulator and the only signer are the same person
- the original date is crossed out, and a new date is provided, but the circulator failed to re-sign
- The date must be provided in month, day, year order if written in all numeric characters.
- the original signature of a circulator has been crossed out, and a different circulator’s signature is inserted
- the circulator has signed using only initials, unless the circulator’s use of initials as a signature is verified by exemplar
- the signature, printed name, and address are all illegible
- the signature alone is illegible, unless the circulator’s use of the apparently illegible signature is verified by exemplar
A full list of possible infractions leading to a petition sheet being rejected can be found here.
To insure that petition circulators are properly informed of the laws regulating signature gathering, the Secretary of State’s Elections Division has made its circulator training available online here. This helpful document gives all petition circulators all of the information they need to avoid violations and insure that the signatures they collect are counted.
Once a petition sheet is cleared to be processed, the signature verification process begins. This process includes:
- comparing the submitted cover and signature sheets to the approved versions
- verifying that each signature sheet is signed and dated by the circulator
- verifying that each signature sheet has the approved cover sheet copied on the back
- using a computer program to determine the actual number of signatures submitted
- using a computer generated report to randomly select the first and second samples of signatures selected for verification
What happens next?
After completion of signature verification of the first sample, the Elections Division processes and tabulates the results of the first sample and determines whether the initiative qualifies as a measure for the ballot. If the initiative fails to qualify, the elections officials conduct signature verification of the second sample.
After completing the second sample, the Elections Division determines if the initiative has enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. If it is determined that the petition has at least the required number of signatures to qualify for the ballot , the petition is assigned a measure number and will appear on the upcoming general election ballot, if not, it is rejected and will not appear on the ballot.
Why it’s important?
The initiative system has given us the eight hour work day, help for veterans, juries for civil trials, the vote for women, direct election of U.S. senators and the presidential primary. After years of documented fraud and forgery, the Secretary of State’s office has tightened up the rules around signature-gathering to ensure that every initiative that goes before voters is placed there legally and legitimately. If you have further questions about the process, please feel free to drop us a line in the comments!
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