BY SARAH ROSS
SALEM- A hearing on the future of Petition 50 ended Monday afternoon, but no ruling by Judge Mary James has been made yet.
Petition 50, which would put the power of redistricting in the hands of a non-partisan panel of retired judges, was spearheaded by former Rep. Kevin Mannix and Common Sense for Oregon.
Just hours before the petition received a hearing in the Marion County Circuit Court, Secretary of State Kate Brown released a statement officially saying that the petition had failed to gain enough signatures to be placed on the November 2nd statewide ballot.
The Secretary of State’s Election Division stated that just over 79% of the 114,973 signatures submitted were “determined to be valid.” This put the valid number of signatures for the petition at 91,617, falling short of the 110,358 needed to get the measure on the ballot.
A ruling in favor of Secretary of State Brown would put the petition in its final resting place for the time being. If the judge rules against the first-term Secretary of State, the Elections Division would have to review petition sheets that had been excluded originally.
