Senator Vicki Walker's Reform Bill to Receive Hearing

SB 1083 addresses ballot titles, signature verification, voter challenges, vote caging and more.

Senator Vicki Walker

(SALEM, Ore.) - The Senate Elections and Ethics Committee will hold a hearing on SB 1083 this Thursday, February 7, 2008, at 3:30 PM in Hearing Room B. The bill represents Senator Walker’s Omnibus election bill for the 2008 Supplemental Session. "Oregon’s time-honored initiative system has been worn around the edges in recent years, and indeed it has been severely tested in recent weeks," said Senator Vicki Walker. "Judge Mosman in the Lemons case, when speaking of the problems associated with the signature verification process, said that ...if there’s anything that should trouble the secretary of state here, it’s the difficulty the State has had in actually articulating the standard to be applied to these differing judgments in different counties.’" SB 1083 seeks to address the concerns raised by the Court in the Lemons case, as well as other issues in Oregon’s elections system. "The bill has been a work in progress for several weeks, with final amendments to be offered at the hearing," said Walker. Some issues the legislation seeks to address are: * Moving the signature verification process into the Secretary of State’s office requiring consistency in training; maintaining statistical sampling, but providing for two levels of review for both approved and rejected signatures. * Directing the Supreme Court to rule on ballot title petitions within 30 days. * Directing the Secretary of State’s office to rule on election law violation complaints pertaining to initiatives, referenda or recalls within 90 days. * Prohibiting the practice of vote caging and tightening language on voter challenges. (See Caging Democracy report at projectvote.org) * Requiring state agencies to report compliance with the National Voter Registration Act. (fvap.gov/nvra/nvra.html) * Giving the Secretary of State authority to automatically update voter registration records based on United States Postal Service information.

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