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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 31, 2002)
Measure 26 may help eliminate forgery If passed, this measure would stop per-signature payment of petition circulators Oregon votes 2002 Ken Paulman Freelance Reporter A measure to stop the payment of petition circulators on a per-signature basis will be on the ballot Tuesday. Sponsors of Measure 26 believe that eliminating the practice will help reduce forgery, fraud and misrepresentation. If passed, the measure will still allow signature gatherers to be paid on salary or by the hour. “The process is dominated by special interests who throw money on the streets to buy signatures from persons whose only motiva tion is making a quick buck,” ini tiative sponsor Bob Davis said in a prepared statement. According to the National Coun cil of State Legislators, costs for qualifying ballot measures in Ore gon in 2000 ranged from $65,000 to #400,000. But not everyone thinks Measure 26 is such a good idea. Dane Waters, president of the Ini tiative and Referendum Institute in Washington, D.C., said laws like Measure 26 are not necessary, are not good public policy and, above all, are unconstitutional. “There is no proof of rampant fraud,” he said. “We don’t believe there’s a necessity (for the measure).” Oregon prohibited all paid signa ture gathering in 1935, but that changed when a 1988 Supreme Court decision invalidated a similar ban in Colorado. It is illegal in Oregon to pay someone to sign or refrain from signing any petition, which means that petition circulators cannot of fer money or anything of value to , he's scary! In fact, he’s so good, we let him loose all year around, not just on Halloween. Shane is an example of the experienced, professional bicycle mechanics who works at Paul's. That's because we view service as the heart of our mission. You might think all this expertisewould cost you extra. Au Contraire, Paul's is always so competitive, that it's scary-. The Foundation For H= JEWISH nSL Campus Life Invites You to an Evening With Special Guest: |4eil Goldscht Former Governor of Oregon and Cabinet Secretary of Transportation under President Carter Friday, November 1, 2002 Free Kosher Vegetarian Dinner 6 pm Special Guest Discussion 7 pm Hillel House: 1059 Hilyard Street (NE Corner of 11th & Hilyard) 541-343-8920 www.oregonhillel.org 2 Shabbat Services and Dinner every Friday at Oregon Hillel! citizens to get them to sign their petitions. But there is currently no regulation barring initiative sponsors from paying “bounties” to petition circulators, which the NGSL says runs as high as $1 to #3 per signature. Recently, petition circulators James Gurga and Paul Frankel pled guilty to fraud in a signature gathering scam in Portland. Ac cording to the union-sponsored Voter Education Project, which filed the complaint, Frankel and Gurga lured people with a fake pe tition that promised lower gas prices. Voters were then asked to sign several pages underneath to “validate” their signatures. As voters signed the other pages, they were unknowingly putting their signatures on a wide range of other statewide ballot initiatives. Oregonians for Initiative Integri ty spokeswoman Patty Wentz said the majority of signatures are gath ered by petitioners who get copies of initiatives, canvass independent ly, and then sell the signatures back to the campaign. Wentz said the fact that Gurga and Frankel were paid on a per-sig nature basis encouraged them to mislead voters. “The more they are paid, the more incentive they have to break election law,” she said. Waters said misrepresentation and forgery are just as likely to oc cur among people who are zealous advocates of a particular initia tive, and banning payment per signature will not necessarily pre vent the initiative process from being abused. “We support anything to do away with fraud,” he said. “But we oppose any initiative that inhibits the use of the initiative process.” The Institute does not engage in political campaigns against ballot measures, Waters said, but does take legal action against laws be lieved to be unconstitutional. According to the NGSL, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota, Wash ington and Wyoming have passed similar legislation, but all except North Dakota’s and Wyoming’s laws have been struck down by the courts. A federal judge upheld North Dakota’s law on the basis that paying per signature does en courage fraud. In other states, however, the courts concluded that there was not enough evi dence of widespread fraud to justi fy the restrictions. Waters said that it is ultimately up to the voters to make sure they know what they’re signing. “It’s not the government’s re sponsibility to protect the people from themselves,” he said. “It’s the responsibility of an individual to read the petition before they sign it.” Ken Paulman is a freelance writer for the Emerald. Measures raise tax debate about health care, labeling Measures 23 and 27 ask if voters want universal health care and if GE food should be labeled. Jody Burruss Oregon votes 2002 Environment/Science/Technology Reporter Money is the underlying contro versy associated with Measures 23 and 27, which ask Oregonians to voice their opinions about health care and food labeling by voting in the Nov. 5 general election. Measure 23 asks Oregonians. if they want universal health care for all residents. Measure 27 asks voters to decide if genetically engi neered foods sold in or from Oregon need to be labeled. If Measure 27 passes, all GE foods — defined as foods contain ing more than one-tenth of one percent of GE material by weight — would need a label, prepared by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, on the outside of its packaging. Robert Buchanan, former direc tor for the Oregon Department of Agriculture and Economic Development, wrote in the official 2002 general election voters’ pam phlet that the DOA estimates Measure 27 will add 8118 million to general fund expenses. And this burden, he said, will be left on the shoulders of the taxpayers. Proponents of this measure say Oregonians have a right to know what is in the food they eat. Taylor Stevenson, a member of the Yes on 27 Committee, said the United States is losing money because labels are not already being used. “It’s ridiculous that America doesn’t have these labels because the rest of the world is ahead of us in the international market,” she said. “We’re losing money every year because we don’t have a stan dard for labeling.” Charles Margulis, GE campaign manager for Greenpeace, said in the voters’ pamphlet that labels are already required in more than 25 countries, and he added that no price increases have resulted because of it. Opponents of the measure say 014334 Locally owned LUBE, OIL, FILTER, TIRE ROTATION • Chassis Lube • New Oil Filter • Up to 5 Qts 10W-30 Chevron Oil • Clean Front Window • Vacuum Front Floor Boards • No Appointment necessary • Most cars & light trucks • 3/4 or 1-ton & Extra Cab Trucks Additional Chevron MOTOR OIL POUN IN THE PROTECTION DOWNTOWN 1320 Willamette • 485-2356 2975 West 11tll 344 0007 • OPEN Sundays 11-4 labels would be misleading and confusing and some add that there is no need for people to know whether their food has been genet ically altered. "It's ridiculous that America doesn't have these labels because the rest of the world is ahead of us in the international market" Taylor Stevenson Member of the Yes on 27 Committee Bill Perry, director of govern ment relations for the Oregon Restaurant Association, said the association is opposed to the measure because it will discourage the growth of Oregon businesses. “Any products shipped out of this state will have a disadvantage in the marketplace,” he said. If passed, Measure 23 would cre ate health care finance plans for Turn to Measures, page 6 Oregon Daily Emerald P.O. Box 3159, Eugene OR 97403 The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Friday dur ing the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc., at the Uni versity of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon.The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is pri vate property. The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law. 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