February 20, 2018


Oregon Progressive Party
Position on Bill at 2018
Session of Oregon Legislature:

    SB 1510A:  Oppose

The Oregon Progressive Party opposes SB 1510A.

First, it bans the gathering on signatures on initiatives during the entire ballot title challenge process, which currently consumes on average 4 months.  Under existing law, the Secretary of State can allow circulation of an initiative with signature sheets that show on the back the complete certified ballot title approved by the Attorney General.  SB 1510A bans such circulation, instead requiring that petitioners halt signature gathering during the multi-month period it takes for the Oregon Supreme Court to resolve any challenge to the certified ballot title, regardless of the merits of such challenge.  This stymies many petitions that depend upon volunteers, not paid circulators.  The Oregon Supreme Court can take as long as it wants to review any ballot title; there is no statutory deadline.  In many cases the ballot title challenge delays signature gathering until it becomes impossible to qualify the measure for the ballot.

There is no reason for this new prohibition.  The ballot titles are already fully certified by the Attorney General as accurate and unbiased.  And most ballot title challenges produce either zero change in the certified ballot title or at most very small changes that would make little or no difference to any voter being asked to sign the petition.  This provision in SB 1510A is just a means to make the initiative process more difficult, particularly for grassroots efforts that cannot afford to hire massive teams of highly-paid circulators.

Second, SB 1510A forbids chief petitioners on initiatives from collecting more than 2,000 signatures on a prospective petition that count toward the ultimate signature requirement for qualifying for the ballot.  Under existing law, all prospective petition signature sheets must be accompanied by the full text of the proposed measure, so such sheets are fully as protected from fraud as ordinary signature sheets (which have the ballot title printed on the back).  This is another means to make the initiative process more difficult for grassroots efforts.

Please reject this bill.

Oregon Progressive Party
Daniel Meek authorized legal representative dan@meek.net 503-293-9021