Frustrated
at seeing their
priorities die
year after year in
the Oregon
Legislature, some
left-wing
political
activists are
pushing for a big
change in the
state’s citizen
initiative system.
They want
to make Oregon the
first state in the
nation to give
registered voters
the option of
signing initiative
petitions online,
via electronic
signature on a
state-run website,
in addition to the
current system,
where paid and
volunteer
gatherers, often
standing on busy
sidewalks, collect
them with pen and
paper.
Oregon’s
century-old
initiative process
allows residents
to bypass the
Legislature,
propose new
public policies
and vote them
directly into
state law or the
constitution. But
that happens only
if backers can
collect a set
number of
signatures to
qualify a measure
for the ballot.
That has
proved to be a
serious hurdle in
recent years: Of
415 initiative
petitions filed
since the
November 2006
election, only 27
— or 6.5 percent —
have qualified to
go to voters,
usually with
significant
financial backing
from advocates to
pay for signature
gatherers.
Smaller
campaigns with
little money
often complain
that the heavily
regulated system
is stacked against
them.
With online
signing, signature
gathering could be
much cheaper for
campaigns,
allowing more
grass-roots
initatives without
moneyed backers to
qualify, argues
chief petitioner
David Carlson, a
30-year-old Aloha
resident and
Portland State
University
student.
It also
would be much more
convenient and
accessible
system for
voters, he said.
“We live in
2017. The
Internet is
available and
accessible to
almost all
Oregonians,” he
said. “People do
everything
online.”
But with
an online signing
system, many more
wedge issues for
the political left
and right probably
would go to voters
every two years —
a prospect that
worries some in
Oregon’s political
establishment.
Union-backed
opposition
The
fledgling
“grass-roots
petitioning”
effort, IP 2,
already is under
attack from
perhaps the
state’s most
powerful liberal
group: Our Oregon,
the political
advocacy machine
backed by public
employee unions.
Our Oregon
Executive
Director Ben
Unger challenged
IP 2’s proposed
ballot title to
the attorney
general and the
Oregon Supreme
Court in recent
months. In both
cases, however,
most of Our
Oregon’s
complaints were
dismissed.
Carlson, a
veteran of recent
left-wing
campaigns to
increase Oregon’s
minimum wage to
$15 an hour and to
enact new
protections for
renters, says
he’s puzzled by
Our Oregon’s
opposition.
“Why are
you coming after
us? It seems so
random to have Our
Oregon come after
a little
grass-roots
organization
that’s trying to
help democracy,”
he said. “We have
so much
commonality with
them in our
(political)
causes.”
But
Oregon’s
government unions
have a long
history of
supporting more
restrictions and
regulations on the
initiative
process — often
citing concerns
about fraud — and
opposing efforts
to open it up.
In fact,
Our Oregon was
created in 2005 in
large part to
fight the anti-tax
initiative
petitions of
conservative
activist Bill
Sizemore. Until
the defeat of Our
Oregon’s proposed
corporate tax
increase in 2016,
Measure 97, the
union-backed group
had racked up an
impressive string
of victories at
Oregon’s ballot
box, both in
passing measures
it favored and
defeating ones it
opposed.
Online
petition portal
With
regards to online
petition signing,
Our Oregon
spokeswoman
Katherine
Driessen said IP
2 “is not the
right way to
modernize our
initiative
petition system.”
“If I’m a
voter who wants to
sign an initiative
petition, putting
a website up is
not going to
change that.”
Under the
proposal, the
petition signing
hub would be a
state website
administered by
the secretary of
state, such as the
current online
voter registration
page and Oregon’s
campaign finance
disclosure portal.
At the campaign
finance portal,
partisan and
nonpartisan
campaigns set up
filing accounts
and submit
mandated campaign
receipt and
expense
disclosures
electronically
that the public
then can view.
For
petition signing,
voters would have
to log in as
themselves,
verifying their
registration with
their Social
Security number or
Oregon driver’s
license number.
Then, they would
complete a
two-step
verification by
confirming
receipt of an
email.
That could
be simpler than
the current system
used by the state
for verifying
handwritten
signatures on
paper petitions,
Carlson said,
since only voters
with an active
registration could
log in to sign
initiative
petitions.
But
Driessen argued
that the IP 2
system would put
the partisan
secretary of state
“in an odd
position where
they are setting
up, running and
facilitating a
website that’s
collecting
signatures.”
“That’s an
inherently
problematic and
very partisan
position,” she
said.
Last year,
Oregon voters
elected Dennis
Richardson as
secretary of
state, the first
Republican to hold
statewide office
since 1998.
In legal
filings, Our
Oregon argued that
IP 2 would “place
the ‘onus’ on the
secretary of state
to gather digital
signatures” — as
opposed to
initiative
petitioners
themselves. But
the Supreme Court
earlier this month
rejected that
argument.
“IP 2
would only make
the secretary of
state responsible
for creating and
administering a
website where
voters can sign
initiative and
referendum
petitions
digitally,” wrote
Justice Rives
Kistler. “The
secretary of
state would not
have to do
anything beyond
that.”
Right-wing
proposals
Carlson
said that, in a
meeting he had
with Our Oregon
officials, they
expressed entirely
different concerns
about IP 2.
They feared
that an online
signature system
would make it
easier for
right-wing
proposals to
qualify for the
ballot, he
claimed, which
would force them
to wage more
defensive
campaigns.
In recent
years,
anti-immigration
and anti-abortion
groups, for
example,
repeatedly have
tried and failed
to qualify
measures for the
ballot.
But that
criticism of IP 2
by Oregon’s
“Democratic
establishment” is
too defensive,
Carlson argues,
and ignores “the
new opportunity
for grass-roots
leftist causes to
get on the ballot”
with an online
signing system.
“If a lot
of these
(right-wing)
causes got on the
ballot, they’d
lose by 10 or 15
(percentage)
points,” he said.
“We have a fairly
informed, more
liberal voter base
here.”
Our
Oregon’s
opposition to
online petitions
also exposes
“hypocrisy” among
liberals, who —
ostensibly to
promote citizen
engagement —
passed automatic
voter registration
in Oregon in 2015,
he added.
“The
Democrats have had
supremacy for 12
years in the
(state) House and
Senate and
governorship” in
Oregon, Carlson
said. “Do you see
them making real
systemic change?
No, because
they’re still
victims in a
system that
requires them to
take on lots of
money.
“Real
change comes
through Oregonians
themselves and
the initiative
process,” Carlson
added.
“People
power” campaign
Asked
about Carlson’s
claims about his
meeting with Our
Oregon, Driessen
reiterated that
the current
signature
gathering
initiative system
is “very
effective.”
“We have a
really accessible
system to folks
who have an
initiative that
resonates with
voters and are
able to gather
those (needed)
signatures,” she
said.
Ashley
Bardales,
Carlson’s
girlfriend and his
fellow chief
petitioner, said
she was on the
fence herself
about IP 2 for a
while.
“I did
wonder, ‘Is this
going to increase
the (political)
right’s ability to
pass things?’ ”
she said.
But,
ultimately,
Bardales said she
decided that an
online signing
system would give
many Oregonians
outside the urban
centers — where
most
signature-gathering
now is done —
access to the
initiative
system.
“I grew up
in Forest Grove,
but I never saw an
initiative
petition there,”
she said. “I would
hear about all
these policies
that would impact
me, but I didn’t
feel like I could
get my voice
heard.”
But Our
Oregon’s
opposition could
make it hard for
IP 2 to qualify
for the ballot.
The campaign has
raised less than
$1,000 so far, and
it’s been unable
to secure
financial support
from other
mainstream liberal
political groups,
Carlson
acknowledged.
“It’s going
to have to be a
‘people power’
campaign,” he
said. “There’s
definitely a
gatekeeper
mentality as to
what policies are
viable and
worthwhile within
the political
class.”
Follow
Saul on Twitter
@SaulAHubbard
. Email
saul.h...@registerguard.com
.
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