In the last few months, two new parties qualified for the Oregon ballot, the Working Families Party, and the Independent Party. They each did this with a petition drive.

Like most states that have registration by party, the Oregon voter registration forms list all the qualified parties. Oregon’s Secretary of State initially told the two new parties that it would cost too much money for him to reprint the voter registration forms, and that for the next year, he would continue using up old forms that don’t list the two new parties. But after the Attorney General of Oregon expressed an informal opinion that such behavior might be held unconstitutional, the Secretary of State changed his mind. The new forms will be available everywhere by early July 2007. Thanks to Dan Meek for this news.