Initiative reformers file petition to end the buying and selling of signatures


SALEM - Sponsors of a labor-backed initiative to stop the buying and selling of signatures on initiative petitions filed 121,690 signatures with the secretary of state July 5, which they say should guarantee their measure a place on the November 2002 ballot.

Only 89,048 signatures of registered voters are required for a constitutional amendment to qualify for the ballot. "We are pleased to give Oregonians this opportunity to stop the practice of paying bounties for signatures, which will eliminate the incentives for forgery, fraud and misrepresentation that are corrupting our initiative process," said Ellen Lowe, a long-time human services advocate.

Lowe and co-chief petitioner Bob Davis, a Gresham real estate agent, first got involved in Oregon politics 50 years ago (for the Young Republicans and Young Democrats, respectively) as volunteers for initiative campaigns to establish one-person-one-vote as the standard for reapportionment of legislative districts.

"Then citizens who cared about an issue took the time to gather signatures," said Davis. "But now the process is dominated by special interests who throw money on the streets to buy signatures from persons whose only motivation is making a quick buck. That's why we're seeing so much fraud and corruption in the process, and that's why we need to stop the practice of paying bounties for signatures."

Co-chief petitioner Tim Nesbitt president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, oversaw the signature-gathering campaign for the measure, called the Initiative Integrity Act.

Nesbitt noted that the campaign collected its signatures through volunteers and through the use of campaign staffers employed by Democracy Resources of Oregon (DRO). DRO paid its staff by the hour, assigned them to designated areas and supervised them closely from day to day.

"Our campaign proved that you can qualify an initiative without using mercenary petitioners who don't care about an issue and who function without any accountability to their sponsors," said Nesbitt. He noted that when a problem arose in the signature-gathering campaign, DRO caught it quickly, dismissed the person involved and set aside the questionable signatures.

"That's the kind of oversight and accountability we need to keep above-board, because the free-lancers who are out there can't be controlled by the initiative sponsors," said Nesbitt. "The bad actors victimize the public by stealing their signatures, they victimize chief petitioners by turning in forged and otherwise invalid signatures, and they taint the whole initiative process by misrepresenting the will of electorate."

As the abuses of buying and selling signatures came to light this year, Lowe noted, Secretary of State Bill Bradbury warned Oregonians to treat signatures like their votes. "We don't pay people bounties for ballots," said Lowe, "and our initiative process is just as important as our elections when it comes to determining the will of the electorate."

"We shouldn't allow the buying and selling of signatures anymore than we should allow the buying and selling of ballots," she said.


July 19, 2002 issue

Home | About

© Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc.