On July 31, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski signed HB 2082. It makes it more difficult for initiatives to get on the ballot. Paid circulators may not work until they have completed a government class. Paid circulators must use different colored petitions than those used by unpaid circulators. There are a host of other new regulations, all of which make the process more cumbersome. The bill was sponsored by Secretary of State Bill Bradbury.
Translation: Orgegon Governor Ted Kulongoski just signed a bill that is a violation of the 1st amendment as well as a violation of sections of the Oregon State Constitution in order to make it more difficult for regular people to have a say in what goes on in government. Governor Ted Kulongoski favors more power for the establisment politicians and less power for the people.
Balderdash. Regular people don’t do it for money. NONE of those provisions apply to volunteer carriers, because volunteer carriers aren’t abusing the system and breaking the law with impunity.
Tim Trickey is no “regular person.” He’s a crook, like his mentor Sizemore.
I should clarify–some regular people do in fact canvass for money…but regular folks don’t run them for money. The grassroots groups that run paid canvassing honestly have welcomed the changes.
“torridjoe Says:
August 4th, 2007 at 10:36 am
Balderdash. Regular people don’t do it for money. NONE of those provisions apply to volunteer carriers, because volunteer carriers aren’t abusing the system and breaking the law with impunity.
Tim Trickey is no ‘regular person.’ He’s a crook, like his mentor Sizemore.”
Regular people who are concerned about an issue may not have the time or inclination to collect petition signatures themselves, so instead they may want to DONATE money to people who are willing to collect petition signatures for pay. There is NOTHING wrong with this.
The fact of the matter is that most people do not have the time or inclination to collect many petition signatures. Most people have full time jobs, families, and other responsibilities. Also, many people simply do not like going out and confronting the public. For people who fall into one or both of these categories, it is necessary for them to be able to hire petitioners.
THERE SHOULD BE NO RESTRICTIONS ON HIRING PETITIONERS OR ON PAYING PETITIONERS. The ONLY thing that these restrictions do is make it more difficult than necessary to put things on the ballot, and it is already difficult as it is.
You put whatever kind of spin you want to put on this, but the fact remains that the REAL intention behind it is to make it more difficult to put things on the ballot, thus giving the general public less choices and less voice in government. This gives more power to the politicians and less for the people.
Last year the “One Ballot” group circulated petitions to put an initiative for the “top two” election system on the Oregon ballot. I can’t recall whether any paid circulators were involved in that effort.
If the new law helps prevent the “top two” monstrosity from getting onto the 2008 ballot, it can’t be all bad.
“Steve Rankin Says:
August 5th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Last year the ‘One Ballot’ group circulated petitions to put an initiative for the ‘top two’ election system on the Oregon ballot. I can’t recall whether any paid circulators were involved in that effort.
If the new law helps prevent the ‘top two’ monstrosity from getting onto the 2008 ballot, it can’t be all bad.”
Yes it is still bad. Most of the crappy, anti-liberty laws are not passed through a citizens initiative, they are passed by legislatures. Sure, from time to time there are crappy, anti-liberty things that make it on the ballot through a citizens initiative, but anything that is done to make it harder to collect signatures on petitions is going to make it harder to get the good stuff on the ballot as well.
This is a VERY bad thing for liberty.