i
MONDAY: Opinion
TUESDAY: Politics
WEDNESDAY: Election Coverage
TMJRSDAY: Election Coverage
FRIDAY: Opinion
1996 election news and results
BY MAIL: P O Box 3159,
Eugene, OR 97403
BY PHONE: (541)346-5511
BY E-MAIL: ode@oregon.
uoregon. edu
IN PERSON: Suite 300, EMU
Preliminary ballot measure results
26
as of 5 p.m. Wednesday
YES: 423,467 63%
NO: 245.395 37%
27
31
32
33
34
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
176,323 27%
474,569 73%
360,456 55%
297,211 45%
169,987 26%
481,940 74%
358,238 55%
296,592 45%
294,586 43%
383,421 57%
308,677 46%
364,203 54%
308,110 47%
345,011 53%
288,046 42%
390,436 58%
NO
35
36
37
41
42
43
44
YES
45
46
47
SPLIT
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
YES:
NO:
221,767 35%
409,195 65%
383.157 56%
304,100 44%
278.157 40%
410,426 60%
239,297 35%
436,982 65%
289,964 44%
368,274 56%
378,165 56%
293,256 44%
212.568 33%
438,563 67%
226,388 66%
443.568 34%
277,500 44%
357,468 56%
380,654 55%
307,872 45%
215,897 32%
455,232 68%
74,799 11%
604,177 89%
340,691 50%
342,789 50%
48 yes
NO:
293,847 45%
353,148 55%
NO
mmm
Vote-by-mail gains Kitzhaber’s support
By Bob Baum
The Associated Press
PORTLAND (AP) — With more than a
half-million absentee ballots to be count
ed, Election Day has turned into Election
Week in Oregon.
As a U.S. Senate seat and a pivotal mea
sure to limit property taxes hung in the
balance, election workers on Tuesday te
diously began hand-counting absentee bal
lots submitted, mostly by mail, over the
past three weeks.
In many of the state’s 36 counties, it will
be Friday before all the votes are counted.
The messy, slow process is adding fuel
to the drive for legislation that would
make all elections in Oregon exclusively
by mail.
"To me, this is a senseless way to run an
election,” said Secretary of State Phil Keis
ling, Oregon’s top elections official and a
chief proponent of vote-by-mail. “You
have maximum confusion for voters and
election workers.”
If this had been a totally mail-in elec
tion, “by 10 p.m. ... we would have had
90 to 95 percent of the votes counted,”
Keisling said.
Gov. John Kitzhaber, who vetoed a bill
to expand vote-by-mail to all elections last
year, grudgingly admitted that Tuesday’s
outcome suggests he reconsider his stand.
“It’s clear that a growing number of Ore
gonians want to vote that way and we have
kind of a hybrid system right now,” he
said. “As much as I enjoy going to the vot
ing booth, I think that clearly voting by
mail is the direction the state is moving.”
Given another chance, Kitzhaber said,
he probably would sign a bill to make all
elections by mail, with certain conditions.
Backers believe vote-by-mail boosts vot
er participation. The turnout among Ore
gon’s 1.9 million registered voters could
fall below 65 percent, Keisling said. That
would make it one of the lowest turnouts
for a presidential election in Oregon since
statistics first were recorded in 1960.
In 1981, Oregon became the first state to
authorize vote-by-mail in statewide elec
tions, but the law requires the traditional
polling booth method be used for primary
and general elections.
However, voters can
request absentee ballots
up to three weeks be
fore Election Day, and
just under half of the es
timated 1.2 million who
voted Tuesday chose
that method.
State law requires
waiting until polls are closed before absen
tee ballots are tallied, and many county
election officials didn’t even begin tabulat
ing the mail-in votes until Tuesday.
The bill that would have conducted all
elections by mail was passed in the final
hours of the 1995 legislative session, but
Kitzhaber vetoed it, saying the bill had
been rammed through at the last minute
without a proper discussion.
His biggest concern now, he said, is the
three-week period between the time bal
lots are mailed to voters and the deadline
for their return to the counties. That allows
people to vote before the full campaign is
played out.
“I’ve indicated that if we can narrow the
time frame between the times ballots are
mailed out and the election date to seven
to 10 days, I would probably sign such a
bill,” Kitzhaber said.
State Senate Majority Leader Brady
Adams, R-Grants Pass, who figures to
move up to Senate president next year, re
mains opposed to using vote-by-mail ex
clusively, although he believes some
changes could be made to speed the count
ing.
“That’s technology. That’s solvable,”
Adams said. "But my feeling is what’s
wrong with a system that allows people to
go to a polling place if they want to or to
vote from their home if they want to. I
don’t find a persuasive argument that it
has to be either or.”
Keisling said an estimated $1.5 million
in taxpayer money would have been saved
if this had been a vote-by-mail election.
In Marion County, which includes the
capital city of Salem, two-thirds of the bal
lots were sent in absentee. County Clerk A1
Davidson estimates his office could have
saved 75 cents to $1 for each ballot if the
election had been entirely by mail. As it is
now, he said, clerks are having to run two
parallel elections, one for the polling booth
and the other for absentee.
“I firmly believe that if we don’t see
something come out of the ’97 legislative
session, we’ll see an initiative in the '98
election that would make all elections
vote-by-mail, and it will pass overwhelm
ingly,” Davidson said.
The clerks’ unabashed preference for
mail-in elections has led to behind-the
scenes rumbling that the counting is pur
posely slow to push the state toward total
mail-in balloting.
"That accusation is offensive,” Keisling
said. "It’s ridiculous. The clerks have been
handed just a dreadful situation. The Lane
County clerk got two hours of sleep last
night. They are working overtime.”
Bottle bill proponents say they will keep fighting
The Associated Press
PORTLAND — Bitter over
the big-spending opposition to
their failed ballot measure, lead
ers of the move to expand Ore
gon’s landmark bottle bill are
vowing to take their case to the
Legislature.
“We’re not going anywhere,”
Campaign DirectorChris Taylor
said. “We have a coalition that’s
450 groups strong. We’re the
real Oregonians in this thing.
We’re going to be pushing for
this come January.”
Measure 37, which would
have expanded Oregon's bottle
and can deposit law to cover
bottled water and non-carbon
ated beverages, such as Snapple
and fruit juices, had the support
of a big majority in polls taken
several months ago.
But it failed in Tuesday’s
election after the beverage, su
permarket and packaging in
dustries spent more than $3
million to defeat it.
With 43 percent of the
precincts reporting, the vote
was 402,212, or 60 percent,
against the measure, compared
with 272,969, or 40 percent, in
favor.
"We’re real pleased that Ore
gon voters got the message that
Measure 37 was confusing and
complicated and would cost
grocers across the state a lot of
money and would undermine
our recycling program,” said
Gail Dundas, spokeswoman for
Oregonians Against Measure
37.
Taylor said the arguments
put forward in the anti-37 ad
vertising blitz were untrue, but
that proponents didn't have the
money to counter that high
priced message. Backers of the
measure were outspent by
about 10-to-l.
‘"Distortion, dollars and de
ceit equal defeat,’” Taylor said.
“That’s a Tom McCall quote,
and it’s on the money tonight. ”
McCall, the late Oregon gov
ernor, was a prime force behind
the state’s passage of the first
mandatory bottle and can de
posit law in 1971. That law ap
plied only to soda pop and beer.
McCall’s widow, Audrey,
was a chief petitioner of Mea
sure 37. The measure also was
supported by Gov. John
Kitzhaber and both candidates
forU.S. Senate.
But the support was no match
for the big money of the oppo
nents, Taylor said.
“It’s certainly disappointing
to see that out-of-state interests
can come in here and spend $3
million and convince people
that water flows uphill,” Taylor
said. “Lying can be very persua
sive. With $3 million and no
concern for the truth, you can
convince people about any
thing.”
Dundas argued that her
group’s accurate message, not
the money that paid for it, made
the difference.
“We found that once Orego
nians were informed about the
confusion Measure 37 would
cause and the complications
and the changes it would bring
to the bottle bill, they were just
well-informed voters, and
they’ve made their decision,”
she said.
Measure 37 would have
broadened the law to include
water bottles up to two liters in
size and non-carbonated drinks,
other than water, from six
ounces to one liter.
Taylor, environmental advo
cate for the Oregon State Public
Interest Research Group, said
the campaign shows a need to
do something to limit out-of
state spending on ballot mea
sures.
“The No on 37 campaign was
clearly driven by focus groups,
PR firms and media consul
tants,” Taylor said. “We’re quite
proud of the fact that ours was a
classic grassroots initiative.”
Measure requiring industry toxin
reports passes by wide margin
The Associated Press
EUGENE An initiative to require city businesses to re
port their use of toxic and hazardous chemicals each year
was firmly approved by voters Tuesday.
With 35 percent of the vote counted early Wednesday,
the measure was passing 16,465 to 11,205.
7measure requires larger businesses in Eugene to keep
a list of all the chemicals they manufacture, use, dispose of,
transport or release.
Proponents wanted people to know what chemicals are
Jeing used in their community. Opponents called the mea
sure unnecessary because businesses already must report
their chemical use to federal, state and local government
agencies.
The initiative affects only manufacturers that employ at
least 10 people and generate more than 2,640 pounds of
chemicals per year.