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Independents testify on initiative rights

Members of the Independent Party testified on behalf of initiative rights at two hearings before the Senate Committee on Elections and Ethics last week. The bill they testified on will bring signature verification for initiative petitions that is currently being conducted by Oregon's County Clerks into the Secretary of State's office. Their testimony focussed on the rights of valid electors whose names are wrongly excluded during the state's signature verification process and on allowing petitioners to remove duplicate names from petition sheets prior to turn-in to the Secretary of State.


Although the bill moved forward without the amendments offered by Independents, one of the two issues was resolved when the Secretary of State pledged to allow petitioners to remove duplicates and invalid addresses, reversing an earlier position taken by that office.

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Independents testify on Petitioner Rights

Testimony of Sal Peralta on SB 1083 to the Senate Committee on elections and Ethics, (remarks as prepared for delivery)

Thursday, February 07, 2008

Madame chair,

Distinguished Senators, my name is Sal Peralta. I am speaking here today as chief petitioner on Initiative Petition 3 (2010), as the owner of a business that works on initiative petitioning, and as an Oregon elector.

I have been following the Secretary of State's implementation of the various rules and regulations that pertain to Oregon's Initiative and Referendum system.

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Former NEA chair may run for Senate

The Salem Statesman Journal Reports that former NEA Chair, John Frohnmayer will announce his intentions to run for the U.S. Senate on September 12th in Portland:

Former National Endowment for the Arts chairman John Frohnmayer said he will announce his political plans Wednesday, and many expect he'll enter the U.S. Senate race as an independent.

Frohnmayer scheduled press events in Salem and Portland, followed by Eugene and Springfield on Thursday and Medford and Ashland on Friday.

Frohnmayer is an attorney and brother of University of Oregon President and former Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer.

He rose to national prominence when overseeing arts funding during the first George Bush administration.

Oregon's Senate race looms as one of the most competitive in the country in 2008.

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Issues, Legislation & Initiatives

Independent means independent, insofar as membership in the Independent Party of Oregon is concerned.

However, the Party reserves the right to take positions on issues that affect our ability to function effectively as a political organization.

Issues that the party may take a position on include:

  • Ballot Access for candidates
  • Election reform (candidate and ballot initiative)
  • Campaign finance reform (visit www.fairelections.net)
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Oregon Legislature Considers Bills to Harm Initiative Process

The Oregon Legislature is considering bills to severely restrict the initiative process and make it far more difficult for grass-roots groups. No wonder. The legislators want to increase their own power by reducing the power of the people to legislate on their own.

The testimony of Dan Meek on the first bill to receive a hearing is below. Contact your legislators and oppose this bill.

You can send an email to all members of the Oregon Senate by sending it to orsenate@oreg.net.

You can send an email to all members of the Oregon House of Representatives by sending it to orhouse@oreg.net.

The House Committee on Elections, Rules, and Ethics held hearings. At each hearing, the public was suddenly confronted with a massively amended bill, prepared by the Committee in private. This undermined the public hearing process, because no one could prepare correct testimony.

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OPB Oregon Territory - Fusion Voting

This piece appeared on the OPB Radio show "Oregon Territory"

Fusion voting used to be legal in Oregon-but that was a hundred years ago. Now there's a movement to bring fusion voting back.

Fusion voting allows more than one party to nominate the same candidate. Votes from different parties are then combined for that candidate's total number of votes.

Under Oregon's current election laws, candidates are nominated by their own parties in primary elections. The primary election winners than face off in a general election.

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