The Bulletin, Bend, Oregon
October 4, 2006

Greg Wasson, of Salem, has filed suit in federal court to overturn an Oregon law that makes it harder for independent candidates to get on the ballot. We don't like the law either and have said the Legislature should scuttle it.

Voters used to be able to sign a nominating petition for an independent candidate as they saw fit. A law passed in 2005 took that power away.

Now no voter who returns a partisan ballot in a primary election may help to get an independent candidate on the ballot. It doesn't matter if the voter signs the petition before or after the primary. Signatures are compared to voting records and invalidated if the voter voted in the primary. And to make it even tougher on independents, the law says voters cannot sign a petition for more than one candidate.

Why did Democrats and Republicans vote to pass the law and Gov. Ted Kulongoski sign it?

Sen. Majority Leader Kate Brown, a Democrat from Portland, told The Oregonian: "This is about preserving one voter, one vote in the nominating process." The argument being that letting a voter participate in a primary and then allowing them to sign a petition to put other candidates on the ballot enables them to - in a way - vote more than once.

It looks to us more like the law is a bald-faced attempt to keep independents off the ballot and make it easier for Democrats or Republicans to get elected. Just ask state Sen. Ben Westlund, of Tumalo. The law made it more difficult for him to get the signatures he needed to get on the ballot, though he has now dropped out of the race.

We aren't sure what's going to happen with Wasson's case. But we can say that unless Oregonians tell legislators to get rid of the law, legislators aren't going to be lunging to do away with it.

(c) 2006 The Bend Bulletin.