SALEM- In a decision released Tuesday morning, Marion County Circuit Court Judge Mary James denied a motion to allow Petition 50 signatures rejected by the Secretary of State’s Election Division to be reconsidered.
“The failure to demonstrate likelihood of success on the merits requires denial of petitioners’ motion,” wrote James in her opinion letter.
In a hearing Monday, the judge heard arguments from the Secretary of State’s Office saying that even if all of the 12,974 signatures thrown out were reinstated, that still did not give the petitioners enough signatures to be approved for November’s statewide election.
James noted that history demonstrated that “as valuable as Oregon’s electors’ constitutional right to sign initiative petitions is, a right that Oregon courts respect, it is a right that is subject to the responsible regulation by another constitutional officer, the Secretary of State.”
“The Court is mindful of the perception that denying petitioners’ relief may be viewed by some as muffling the voice of otherwise well-intentioned electors who signed these petitions,” said James. But she added, “That discomfort does not relieve the Secretary of State, or the court for that matter, from the responsibility to apply the proper standard of review.”
Initiative Petition 50, also commonly referred to as the redistricting petition, would have put the state’s redistricting process in the hands of a panel of retired judges, if passed in November’s election.
As it stands, that process lies with the Oregon Legislature after the completion of the U.S. Census. If the Legislature is unable to accomplish this task, as it has since 1961, then it becomes the responsibility of the Secretary of State.
Sponsors of the petition had collected and turned in 114,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office, 79% of which were verified. The remainder was thrown out, putting the total count of signatures at just under 92,000. To make it onto the statewide November ballot, an initiative petition needed to have at least 110,358 verifiable signatures.
Spokesman for the Secretary of State’s Office Don Hamilton responded to the outcome, saying that even if all of the signatures were added, they still wouldn’t qualify.
“They were unable to prove that those signatures were critical to qualifying for the ballot,” said Hamilton. “And the judge also said that they were unable to prove that there was any irreparable harm.”
Hamilton also added that lawsuits are not at all uncommon during petition season.
“I don’t think it unusual considering the timing of all of this. There’s been a decision that’s been made and the court is a remedy that they have,” he said.
Ross Day, Executive Director of Common Sense for Oregon, the group that led the effort on gathering signatures, said he was not happy with the judge’s ruling.
“We spent a lot of time and effort trying to get the measure to qualify, and to have a set of signatures thrown out really for no reason, other than the arbitrary decision of the Secretary of State, doesn’t make me too happy,” said Day.
He added that there is without question a problem with the verification process.
“We had 13,000 signatures thrown out, and we still don’t really know why they were thrown out,” he said. “We had rules that were enforced that we had no idea were even in existence until they applied them this time around.”
Day noted that while the group is looking at all of their options for further legal action, he wasn’t sure if they’d move forward on an appeal.
“At some point, we need to focus on the task at hand, which is hopefully changing the way that redistricting occurs so that the politics are taken out of the process,” he finished, adding that this could include trying for something in the next cycle or preparing something for 2021.
Secretary of State Brown has until August 1 to verify and finalize signature counts in preparation for November.
