Tag Archive for 'Ballot Initiatives'

HB 2082 Stands.

Published on March 24, 2010 in Ballot Initiatives, Elections and Secretary Brown. 0 Comments Tags: .

A Federal Court Judge ruled today in favor of Oregon’s efforts to crack down on fraud and abuse in the ballot initiative system, dismissing all claims filed in a challenge to HB2082 from the 2007 legislative session.

The bill established new requirements for petitioners and signature gatherers, banning anyone convicted of fraud, forgery or identity theft from being a paid signature gatherer. Furthermore, it required paid signature gatherers to register with the State of Oregon and complete a short course of instruction on compliance with elections law. Finally, HB2082 also required chief petitioners to produce payroll records to establish that signature gatherers are not being paid per signature, a practice Oregon voters banned by approving a 2002 Constitutional amendment.

U.S. District Judge Michael R. Hogan found that the new rules did not restrict the constitutional rights of the sponsors of citizen initiatives:

“Those lesser burdens are justified by Oregon’s interests in administrative efficiency and ensuring compliance with the Oregon Constitution’s prohibition against payment of petition circulators on a per signature basis,” Hogan said in his decision. He added that, “State interest in maintaining the integrity of the petition process are significant and outweigh the burden these statutory requirements to keep and submit detailed accounts place on chief petitioners.”

Secretary of State Brown, then the Senate Majority Leader, played a part in drafting the bill with Senator Diane Rosenbaum. She applauded the court’s decision, calling it “A win for all Oregonians.”

Questions Arise About Voter’s Pamphlet Arguments

Published on January 5, 2010 in Ballot Initiatives and Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Our Elections Division has received a number of complaints about some of the arguments that made their way into the Voter’s Pamphlet for the upcoming Special Election.

The Albany Democrat Herald explains the stir-up:

The state last week mailed Voters’ Pamphlets to 1.7 million addresses. Backers and opponents paid $500 per statement to the state to have their arguments for and against the measures included.

Kevin Looper of “Our Oregon,” a Portland-based nonprofit, managed to get his arguments supporting the measures — labeled as opposition — placed last in the lineup of arguments against them. He also managed to be first in the opposition column.

This has raised the eyebrows and the ire of a number of Oregon voters, so we wanted to clear any confusion surrounding the process for filing an argument to be placed in the Voter’s Pamphlet and the role of the Secretary of State’s office in that process.

Any individual who files an argument to be printed in the voters’ pamphlet indicates on the filing form whether the argument submitted is in support or opposition to the measure. All arguments are printed in the voters’ pamphlet in the order they are received by our office. Our office then reviews each argument and if it appears that the information regarding a measure number or the designation of whether the argument supports or opposes the measure is incorrect, we contact the author to inquire if they made an error. If the author advises us that it is not an error, we are required to place the argument in the voters’ pamphlet as they have indicated, and in the order received in our office. This process is outlined and dictated by state law in ORS 251.260.

The Secretary of State’s Office does not have the legal authority to verify a given statement’s accuracy nor to edit it for content.

A recent article from the Oregonian provides a little historical background on the topic:

Here’s something to keep in mind: The secretary of state has compiled Voters’ Pamphlets since 1903. It’s a long tradition meant to help the public make important decisions. But, by law, the secretary of state cannot verify the truth and accuracy of statements in the pamphlet.

“We have a pretty strong constitutional protection of free speech in this state,” Secretary of State Kate Brown said Saturday.

Instead of state-issued statements, Brown said the Voters’ Pamphlet provides Oregonians “with a full range of arguments.”

Don’t be surprised if you detect some sarcasm and satire among those statements. The lead-off “argument” in opposition to Measure 66 was submitted by Kevin Looper, who is helping to coordinate the “pro” campaign.

In one of the most outrageous examples, in 2004, the phony “Defense of Heterosexual Breeding Coalition” put a statement in the pamphlet in support of Measure 36, a constitutional amendment recognizing that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

We hope that this clears up any misconceptions that may be out there about this process. If you have any further questions, go ahead and leave us a comment below.

Oregon Secretary of State Brown Discusses Her First Year

Published on December 21, 2009 in Secretary Brown. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Courtesy of The Statesman Journal:

Oregon Secretary of State Brown

Secretary of State Kate Brown said she took steps during her first year in office toward better policing of paid signature-gatherers and promoting alternatives for registration and voting.

Brown likened her 2008 campaign promises to an exercise she attended at the Council of State Governments-West, which she led while still a Democratic state senator. She did the 20 push-ups requested at a session on building credibility, but her counterpart from New Mexico failed.

“The message was clear,” she said at a Marion County DemoForum luncheon. “When you make commitments on the campaign trail, make sure you can deliver on them.”

House Bill 2005, which lawmakers passed during the 2009 session, builds on legislation that Brown shepherded as Senate Rules Committee chairwoman in 2007.

Among other things, the 2009 law holds chief petitioners accountable for the conduct of paid signature-gatherers, and allows the secretary of state or the attorney general to levy maximum civil penalties of $10,000 for legal violations in signature-gathering for ballot-initiative petitions. Civil penalties, which had been $250, can be imposed without the legal burden of proof required in criminal cases.

Also, instead of a single submittal by July in even-numbered years, the law requires paid signature-gathering campaigns to submit signatures monthly.

Brown said the more frequent filings, which apply only to petition campaigns using paid signature-gatherers, will allow more time for state elections officials to verify signatures before the legal deadline. The Oregon Constitution requires verification of petition signatures within 30 days after the filing deadline.

“It is my belief that when we fully implement House Bill 2005, along with the reforms we passed in 2007, Oregonians will have greater confidence that when they vote on initiatives, the initiatives will have gotten on the ballot through legitimate means,” Brown said.

Not part of the new law, but granted by lawmakers, was money in the state budget enabling state elections officials to verify randomly chosen signatures — instead of farming out that task to the 36 counties — and to hire two investigators.

Brown said a statewide voter registration database, required of all states under a 2002 federal law, allows her office to take over verification of signatures for statewide petitions.

Other bills will put Oregon among the handful of states with online voter registration and fax voting — although the latter is restricted to Oregonians on active military duty.

The online system is scheduled to start March 1. It will require eligible voters 18 and older by election day, U.S. citizens and Oregon residents to hold a valid Oregon driver’s license, permit or identification card. A digital copy of the signature on file with the Oregon Department of Transportation will be used to verify a voter’s signature on the back of a ballot envelope.

As is the case with regular registration, voters must affirm they are U.S. citizens. The maximum penalties for violations are five years in prison and a fine of $125,000.

Brown said online registration will allow voters to update their addresses and other changes — and help young people who spend a lot of time online.

“But this is not online voting,” she said. “We are not there yet. As someone who won her first race by seven votes, I want to make sure there is a paper trail that we can do a recount on.”

Brown said the two measures are just small steps toward her larger goal of broadening civic engagement.

Given a September public-opinion survey in which 40 percent of participants said they did not know Oregon has two U.S. senators, Brown said, “we really have our work cut out for us.”

pwong@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6745

Oregon Secretary of State Brown – 20 Push-ups

Published on November 4, 2009 in Audits, Ballot Initiatives, HAVA and Secretary Brown. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Source: a href=A few years back, when I was still a State Senator, I attended a workshop, which was put on by the Council of State Governments regional arm, CSG-West, an organization I also chaired for a year.

This particular workshop was focused on how legislators can build  credibility –through improved accountability– with their constituents. At the outset of the workshop, the keynote speaker asked who in this room of legislators could do 20 push-ups. Thinking nothing of it and being the eager beaver that I am, I quickly raised my hand as did a few others.

The speaker then spent the next 15 minutes talking about some key functions of building and maintaining accountability with constituents,  delivering on campaign promises and engaging groups back inside the district.

With that lesson delivered, the speaker conducted a little real-world experiment, recalling the claim I and a few others had made regarding these 20 push-ups. She invited me and one other legislator, a gentleman from New Mexico, up to do the 20 push-ups we had promised her we could do. This was a moment of truth.

The good news for Oregon; I did them pretty easily. The bad news for New Mexico; their legislator couldn’t do his.

This drove the message home for me: If you’re going to commit to something during the campaign, you need to make absolutely sure that you can deliver on them once you’ve been elected.

When I was running for this office, I made three major promises to the voters of this state:

  1. That I was going to restore integrity to the initiative process
  2. That I was going to undertake a comprehensive civic engagement program
  3. That I was going to focus our work in the Audits division on performance auditing

When I took office, I remembered that day when I was called up to do 20 push-ups. Taking a high profile position in State government, I knew that I was going to be held to my word on the campaign trail, so I started right in, working on fulfilling those promises.

Continue reading ‘Oregon Secretary of State Brown – 20 Push-ups’

Celebrating 100 Years of Suffrage

Published on October 19, 2009 in Archives and Secretary Brown. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .
Abigail Scott Duniway (right) arrives to vote in Portland for a 1914 election. Source: SoS Archives Division

Abigail Scott Duniway (right) arrives to vote in Portland for a 1914 election. Source: SoS Archives Division

Planning will get under way this fall for an important anniversary in Oregon’s political and cultural history.

In 1912, Oregon voters gave women the full right to vote but it wasn’t an easy effort. Five previous statewide suffrage ballot measures had failed in the previous three decades, the most recent by increasingly large margins. Its final success in 1912 still placed Oregon among the first states to give women the complete right to vote and it came full eight years before ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

In 2012, Oregon will celebrate the suffrage centennial with appropriate displays and retrospectives coordinated by the Oregon Archives Divisions. Earlier this month, Secretary of State Kate Brown will take part in a small reception at the Archives Building to mark the start of planning for the centennial celebration.

“I’m really excited to be a part of this process,” Brown said. “This was a vote that changed the face of Oregon and it came with the support of some brave and colorful figures from our past. This is a golden page in Oregon history.”

Taking part in the celebration will be the Oregon Women Suffrage Centennial Project, a part of the Northwest History Network. The project has already started a web site, www.oregonsuffrage.org, that takes a close look at Oregon’s suffrage movement with articles, a time line and photos.

President Teddy Roosevelt took a leading role in the Progressive Era. Source: Oregon SoS Archives

Full suffrage for women had its first debate in the Oregon Legislature in 1872. By 1878 women – if taxpayers — won the right to vote in school elections only. By 1912, suffrage had been defeated in five statewide votes, the first in 1884 and 1900, put before voters by the Legislature, and again in 1906, 1908 and 1910, put on the ballot by the newly-established right to citizen initiative. The last three measures lost by increasing larger margins, going from 44 percent support in 1906, to 49 percent in 1908 and 37 percent in 1910.

But 1912 saw a groundswell toward progressive causes, which included women’s suffrage. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt and his Progressive Party (known as the Bull Moosers) came in second in Oregon to Woodrow Wilson in the presidential balloting. And that year, after five defeats, suffrage finally won approval, gaining 51.7 percent of the vote.

We’ll keep you updated on other events leading up to the suffrage centennial.

Want to vote in the Nov. 3 elections? Register now!

Published on October 13, 2009 in Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Today is the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 3 elections.

Voters all over the state will make choices in how to administer cities, schools and a multitude of local service districts. These aren’t issues that will likely make the statewide radar, but they do matter a lot to those who they will affect. And that is what this election is about; communities making critical choices on vital issues that will affect them for years to come.

Perhaps the biggest ballot measure in the state this fall is Central Oregon Community College’s request for $41.6 million in bonds for campus improvements. Voters in all or parts of six central Oregon counties will decide the fate of the bonds.

Most of the remaining requests concern local services; fire districts, water districts, library districts, animal protection districts, amongst others. For instance, the city of Bandon is asking for money for police services, while the Shangri-La Water District in Lane County is asking for money for system repairs. The city of Ashland wants to main a tax on food and beverages to pay for waste-water services and finally the Rogue River Rural Fire Protection District is asking for money to maintain services.

Close on the heels of the registration deadline is the day when ballots start going in the mail. That will begin on Friday.

And remember to have your ballots in the hands of your local elections office no later than 8 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3. Postmarks don’t count.

Referenda, qualified

Published on October 8, 2009 in Ballot Initiatives and Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

In an earlier blog, we mentioned two referenda that were circulating in hopes of getting on the 2010 special election ballot. Today the Elections Division has announced that both the petitions referring both HB 2649 and HB 3405 to voters have indeed received the  required amount of signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Measure 66, which will refer HB 2649 to voters gathered 98,842 valid signatures, plenty to satisfy the constitutional requirement of 55,179 needed. HB 2649, which passed in the 2009 Legislative session, concerns the State’s personal income tax.

The other referendum, now titled Measure 67 received 99,471 valid signatures, a full 80.7% of the 123,324 signatures accepted for verification. The measure will refer HB 3405, a bill which pertains to corporate income taxes, to Oregon’s voters.

This is hardly the first time that the ‘Oregon System‘ has been used to give Oregon’s voters the opportunity to repeal enrolled legislation, but it will be the first time since 2004 that Oregon has voted on  statewide referenda.

To be eligible to vote on these referenda Oregonians will need to be
registered to vote no later than January 5, 2010. Please contact our  Elections division with questions about getting registered.

Referenda Roundup

Published on September 24, 2009 in Ballot Initiatives and Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/atlas/Images/Glossary/Referendum.jpgIn most years, the humble referendum pales in popularity to its gregarious cousin the citizen initiative.

Since 1902, the citizen initiative has given birth to all kinds of changes to our social and political structure, including the vote for women, mandated seat belt use and reworking of our tax structure. There have been 348 initiatives on Oregon ballots and we’ve passed 118 of them.

The referendum doesn’t always have the same dramatic flare or occasional high profile.  But it allows citizens to repeal an action by the Legislature, a vital check on our State government. In the last century, we have voted on 62 referenda, the most recent referendum in 2004 when voters rejected a temporary tax increase.

This year, however, petitioners are circulating petitions that could place four different referenda before voters next year. Referenda being circulated would refer HB 2649 (personal income tax) and HB 3405 (corporate income tax) to a special election held on January 26, 2010.  Two other referenda would refer to voters HB 2001 (transportation funding and gas tax) and HB 2010 (health care provider tax) to the May 2010 primary ballot.

To qualify for the ballot, a referendum needs the signatures of 4 percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in the most recent gubernatorial election. That translates to signatures from 55,179 registered Oregon voters.

The deadline for all four of the petition drives is 5 p.m. on Sept. 26.

Investigating Signature Gathering: A Proactive Look at the Initiative System

Published on September 22, 2009 in Elections and Secretary Brown. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Here is my recent Op-Ed, re-posted from The Oregonian:

September 22, 2009, 8:22AM

I  ran for office last year promising voters I’d fight to restore integrity to our citizen initiative and referendum system.

The citizen initiative is deeply ingrained in Oregon’s political DNA. It has changed our culture and has become one of the biggest drivers in the state budget, from Measure 5 property tax limitations to Measure 11 mandatory-minimum sentencing.

Everywhere I go, I hear worries that measures get on the ballot through illegal methods such as fraud and forgery. The issue has clearly concerned the Legislature as well. Lawmakers passed major reforms in 2007 and again in 2009.

To ensure measures reach the ballot through legal and legitimate means, the Legislature authorized a pilot project to make spot checks from August until the end of 2009 to make sure petitioners are in compliance with the law. Contrary to what some may claim, the spot checks are not targeting the referenda on the tax measures passed in the last session by the Legislature. They’re also observing petitioners for some of the seven other citizen initiatives approved to circulate. When the signatures for the referenda are handed in on Sept. 25, investigators will continue their work through the end of the year.

So just what are the observers looking for? Violations, both major and minor. Minor violations might include not using authorized forms or the failure of a signature gatherer to personally witness a signature, as the law requires. Major violations involve bribing a voter to sign or forging names onto a petition. The observers also will make sure no one interferes with voters interested in signing a petition. New reforms make it a felony to hinder or delay these encounters. Investigators are watching for that, too.

It’s always easy to assume the worst. Indeed, critics — including The Oregonian’s editorial board — question the efficacy of the investigations based on just the first two weeks of a nearly five-month project. But this is a straightforward, nonintrusive observation of the process, and it’s already made a difference. In one recent training, a trainer told attendees that he would “do everything by the book” as a result of investigators being present.

The investigators are simply observing what is going on in full view of the world. They do not interfere with the interaction between signature gatherers and signers, and they talk to the signature gatherers only when approached by the circulator.

I’m hesitant to characterize our findings thus far because we’re only a few weeks into a five-month project. But so far, with more than 300 contacts with circulators, we’ve seen no major violations. We found some relatively minor transgressions by one citizen initiative campaign, but they appeared to be oversights and were handled with a phone call to the chief petitioner.

When the observers’ work is complete, we will provide a full report to the Legislature.

I hope we find few problems. I hope everyone gathering signatures knows what the law requires and observers and gatherers alike treat everyone with dignity and respect.

Until recently, compliance with the law has been a reactive process. Under my watch, we’re taking a comprehensive, proactive approach to this issue for the first time in this state’s history. This is one more step in helping Oregonians regain confidence in their citizen initiative system.

Kate Brown is Oregon secretary of state.

Unveiling Our Signature Verification Room

Published on September 21, 2009 in Ballot Initiatives and Elections. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

These are pictures of Oregon’s Signature Verification Room. It is empty now with the exception of a few computers, some desks, and the flickering lights coming from a couple of Ethernet routers, but that doesn’t figure to be the case for much longer. With signature sheets for ballot initiatives due on September 25th and a constitutionally mandated 30 days1 for our elections staff to verify those signatures, the serene scene you see above will be a rare occurrence.

During this month, 5-6 elections officers at a time will work in shifts to get through more than 200,000 signatures expected to be submitted later this week, which have been gathered to refer to voters up to four bills passed by the legislature. Each staff person receives training from a forensic document examination consultant.

This will be the first time that the Secretary of State’s office will be conducting the full signature verification operations for initiatives and referenda; previously, each county was responsible for the operation. That changed in response to an issue raised by US District Court Judge Michael Mosman in his opinion on a 2008 challenge to the signature verification process.  Judge Mosman upheld the underlying process as valid, but raised concerns that verification standards could change from one county to another.

In order to insure a uniform standard, the Secretary of State has brought the entire verification process under the auspice of the Elections Division, relieving our county partners of a large amount of work and guaranteeing the signatures be evaluated uniformly.

As you can see from the first picture above, we’re taking security on this operation very seriously. Only Secretary of State staff will be able to access an outer door, which then leads to the locked cage you see above. Observers from proponents and opponents of the referenda will be allowed in the room under supervision.  As this process gets under way, we will be providing you with a behind the scenes look at the verification process as it is taking place.

[1] Oregon Constitution Article IV, Section 1, Subsection 4a