Oregon, national pioneer in ballot initiatives, took two steps recently to curb election abuses inspired by deep pockets.
First, the Oregon Supreme Court two years ago finally supported the rights of supermarkets, shopping malls and other public businesses to deny access to persons soliciting signatures for proposed election initiatives.
The court’s decision curtailed the initiative process considerably.
Despite that ban, however, unpaid supporters of an initiative banning paying petitioners by the signature were overwhelmingly successful in qualifying their measure for the November General Election ballot.
Why? In one recent election, 18 of 26 measures facing voters were initiatives placed by petitioners paid 50 cents to several dollars per signature. The other eight were referred by the Oregon Legislature.
The no-pay-per-signature measure, if successful, will curtail the political mercenaries even more and return the initiative process to committed volunteers.
Hooray. (11 AUGUST 2002)
