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
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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
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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
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