FROM PAGE ONE
THURSDAY, APRIL 21, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A7
PRIMARIES
“It may be top two,” he
said. “It may be top four.
It may be something com-
pletely diff erent. Our ini-
tiative isn’t defi ning the
solution. It’s opening the
door to guarantee the
rights for all voters and
all candidates.”
Doyle said he antic-
ipates opposition from
Democrats and Republi-
cans, who have opposed
similar eff orts over the
past two decades. Oregon
voters defeated ballot mea-
sures in both 2008 and
2014 that would have cre-
ated a top-two primary
system akin to California
and Washington.
State Sen. Dallas Heard,
a Roseburg Republican
who until recently chaired
the state GOP, proposed
opening the Republican
primary to nonaffi liated
voters. Other party leaders
rejected the idea.
Carla “K.C.” Hanson,
chair of the Democratic
Party of Oregon, said party
leaders will decide whether
to support or oppose the
initiative if it moves for-
ward, but they’ve histor-
ically opposed the idea
of opening primaries to
all voters.
“In the past, the Demo-
cratic Party has not viewed
it as a viable option and
neither have the people
of Oregon,” she said.
“Oregon voters have con-
sistently voted it down
every time it comes up, and
they’re right.”
The rise in nonaffi liated
voters, though, means both
parties need to reach voters
in the general election who
haven’t chosen either party.
age and homeownership.
Older respondents tended to
be less likely than younger
respondents to support pro-
grams that included terms
like “cultural awareness.”
Across the board, renters
were more likely to sup-
port a given family service
than homeowners.
WHAT THE INITIATIVE
SAYS
Continued from Page A1
It’s a diffi cult task for a
group that now has about
$6,500 in a campaign bank
account and will need to
pay petition circulators.
“It’s really an uphill
battle for us to actually get
the signatures in order to
get on the ballot,” Doyle
said. “It will really depend
on funding as we go
forward.”
The proposed initia-
tive is simple — just a
two-sentence addition to
a section of the Constitu-
tion. It would require that
all voters be able to vote
in a state-funded primary
for any candidate for Con-
gress, U.S. Senate, the
Oregon Legislature and
statewide elected offi ces
like governor, regardless of
political party.
It wouldn’t apply to
presidential primaries or
to partisan primaries for
local races like county
commission.
It also doesn’t prescribe
how the state would hold
open primary elections,
just that all voters must be
able to vote for all candi-
dates. That could take the
form of the top-two pri-
SURVEY
Continued from Page A1
to consider in education, he
worries schools are being
asked to teach too many
things.
“Are we asking the
school systems to do too
much, where it’s under-
serving the primary good?”
Warman said. “We’re not
treating teachers like pro-
fessionals and letting them
focus on what they’re sup-
posed to be doing.”
Warman said while he
disagrees with many of
the more extreme , MBA
argu-
ments, he shares some of
the core concerns about
overreaching school cur-
riculum as those expressed
by those on the right in
recent debates over school
curriculum.
“There’s a conserva-
tive attack on education
Amend Article II, Section 1 of
the Constitution of the State of
Oregon to read:
Section 1. Elections Free. All
elections shall be free and equal.
(1) In all publicly funded elec-
tions for state and federal
offi ce, the state shall only select
candidates for the general elec-
tion by conducting an open
primary election in which all
qualifi ed candidates and elec-
tors may participate regardless
of political party affi liation or
non-affi liation.
(2) As used in this section,
“offi ce” means all state and fed-
eral legislative offi ces and all
statewide elected offi ces.
Ron Cooper/Oregon Capital Chronicle, File
Candidates and their families watch names scroll across three large screens in the Oregon House chamber
on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, the fi ling deadline for the governor’s race.
maries held in Washington
and California, or it could
resemble a new Alaska
election system that will be
used for the fi rst time in a
special congressional elec-
tion this summer.
Alaska voters in 2020
established an open pri-
mary that sends the top
four vote-getters to a gen-
eral election. Voters then
rank their fi rst through
fourth choices in the gen-
eral election, and if no can-
didate is the fi rst choice of
more than 50% of voters,
vote tabulators look at the
second choices from voters
who picked the candidate
who came in last place.
In some other Western
states, nonaffi liated voters
can participate in primaries
— but they have to choose
a party’s ballot. In Colo-
rado, nonaffi liated voters
receive both Democratic
and Republican ballots in
the mail and choose one to
fi ll out.
In Arizona, nonaffi liated
voters who opted to receive
ballots by mail have to
“Are we asking the school systems to do
too much, where it’s underserving the
primary good. We’re not treating teachers
like professionals and letting them focus
on what they’re supposed to be doing.”
— Noah Scott Warman, 52, a labor attorney from Portland
and a survey respondent
that I don’t want to echo.
I think there’s some inter-
esting observations we need
to think about,” Warman
said. “I think the common
thread, to start with, there
is a view of what is the pri-
mary goal — it’s not at
odds with other goals. What
is the primary purpose of
getting this education?”
The survey revealed
other spaces for common
ground: Reducing barriers
to behavioral health ser-
vices, culturally respon-
sive suicide prevention pro-
grams for communities
at risk, increasing access
to extracurricular and
tutoring programs all saw
upwards of 70% support
from both Democrats and
Republicans.
Survey taker Susan
O’Neill, 68, a Republican
from Medford who’s retired
and describes herself as
“slightly conservative,”
told The Bulletin she sup-
ports using tax dollars for
expanding access to behav-
ioral health programs in
schools.
“The whole idea, for
me, of school is to help a
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Doyle said a system like
that in Colorado or Arizona
isn’t the goal, but that the
initiative is purposefully
vague on what Oregon’s
election system should
look like. It would force the
Legislature to pass laws
that would comply with the
amended Constitution.
small child grow up to be
— if not happy — a con-
tented and fully functioning
human,” O’Neill said.
“And to do that, you need
to not only teach Johnny to
read and write. If he’s got
a mental illness, you also
have to teach him to deal
with that.”
Access to those kinds of
services for students could
reduce the stigma around
mental illness and expand
access to mental health pro-
viders for people of all ages,
O’Neill, who has bipolar
disorder, told The Bulletin.
“It can cause the older
relatives to question their
own beliefs,” O’Neill said.
Survey researchers
found two other key predic-
tors of a person’s support
for particular programs:
BY THE NUMBERS
As of March 18, Oregon had
• 1,022,556 nonaffi liated voters
• 1,019,668 Democrats
• 723,728 Republicans
Then
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