...Group questions signature-gathering methods
(From Page 1)
and Sizemore $250 each.
Fines of $250 are a slap on the wrist,
said Our Oregon Executive Director
Kevin Looper, and are little deterrent.
“I’m immensely frustrated that we’re
facing as many ballot measures as we
are, with really very little evidence that
signatures have been collected within
the intent of the law,” Looper said.
Staff at Our Oregon say the secretary
of state’s 15-person Elections Division
follows statutes, rules, and procedures
to the letter, but seems to work on the
Q
presumption that signatures are valid.
Here’s how the process works. This
year, 92,769 valid signatures are re-
quired to qualify a statutory measure,
and 110,358 for a constitutional meas-
ure.When the initiatives’ chief petition-
ers think they have enough signatures to
get on the ballot, they deliver boxes con-
taining signed petition sheets to the Sec-
retary of State’s office in Salem. Elec-
tions Division staff move quickly
through the petition sheets, counting the
signatures and looking to see if basic
rules have been complied with, like
whether someone signed the sheet
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PAGE 8
“When the process is abused like it
swearing they witnessed all the signa-
tures. Then staff randomly select 1,000 has been in the past, especially with Bill
signatures, and send copies of the sheets Sizemore, the voters of Oregon begin to
to the 36 county elections offices. For question the process — and the job
each signature, county elections clerks some of our state elected officials are
see if there’s a voter registration card on doing,” said Oregon Education Associ-
ation President
file, and compare the
Larry Wolf, who
signature to the one on
met with Bradbury.
the card. Signatures
“I would like to
that don’t match don’t
do more,” Bradbury
count toward qualify-
told the NW Labor
ing the measure. If the
Press. “I’m not go-
measure fails to qual-
ing to say we’ve
ify based on that sam-
done everything we
ple, a second random
could do.”
sample is generated in
Bradbury said
which 5 percent of the
the Legislature has-
total signatures are
n’t given his office
checked.
the resources to po-
But what if signa-
lice the initiative
tures in the samples
process. His office
match the ones on file
asked the Legisla-
because they were
ture to fund an in-
forged? Maybe a reg-
vestigator in 2003
istered voter signed
and 2005, but not in
one petition, and then
2007, when Democ-
paid signature gather-
BILL SIZEMORE
rats controlled both
ers copied the signa-
chambers.
ture onto other petition
As of now, no part of the initiative
sheets.
Workers in Sizemore’s organizations certification process is designed to de-
did just that on several 2000 ballot tect signature forgery. There are no
measures, as revealed by a a civil law- plans to look for fraud or forgery in the
suit filed by the Oregon Education As- current batch of 1.2 million initiative
sociation and American Federation of signatures that are in boxes in the office
Teachers-Oregon. A forensic signature basement. No government agency con-
analyst demonstrated that Sizemore em- tacts voters to see if they signed peti-
ployees forged signatures, and the jury tions. The secretary of state has one staff
found Sizemore’s groups guilty of en- person assigned to investigate initiative
gaging in a pattern of criminal activity. abuse, and he’s not looking for forgery.
In 2002, the union-supported watch- He’s doing criminal background checks
dog group Voter Education Project on paid circulators and asking paid peti-
mailed copies of turned-in petitions to tioners to show a badge they’re required
over 15,000 individuals whose signa- to carry.
That requirement is one of several
tures were selected for the random sam-
ples, asking them if they had signed the reforms contained in the Initiative Re-
enclosed petitions — 198 wrote back form and Modernization Act, a law the
saying they had not. The project’s ef- Legislature passed last year to help
forts led to the convictions of several crack down on lawlessness in the initia-
tive industry.
signature gatherers.
The new law gives the secretary of
Our Oregon, the political successor
to the Voter Education Project, keeps state the right to demand payroll records
tabs on signature gathering efforts, and to prove initiative campaigns aren’t pay-
tries to observe election workers when ing by the signature. Bradbury was au-
they validate petitions. This year Our thorized to request payroll records when
Oregon staff say they’re seeing some the law took effect in July, but didn’t ask
disturbing things. Whole sheets of sig- for the records until Jan. 2.
“The goal was to give them enough
natures have all the address information
filled out in the same handwriting. In time to have records to turn in,” said
some cases the filled-out information Scott Moore, spokesperson for the sec-
doesn’t appear to be same handwriting retary of state.
A number of initiative campaigns
as the person who swears on the bottom
of the sheet they are the circulator. On failed to produce the requested records,
quite a few petition sheets, voter infor- so on Jan. 22 and 23, the Secretary of
mation appears to have been written us- State’s office applied the one sanction it
ing sheets of carbon paper. On one oc- has under the law: It prohibited the cam-
casion, an Our Oregon observer pointed paigns from gathering more signatures
out sheets on which the signatures of until they comply. The prohibition may
one prolific circulator were obvious for- be meaningless for some initiative cam-
geries. These particular sheets were paigns, because they’ve already turned
pulled by elections workers, but there in enough signatures to qualify. For sev-
eral others, failure to comply may keep
was no investigation.
Mindful of the level of initiative them off the ballot.
Come this fall, a lot of union re-
fraud and abuse exposed in the past,
union leaders have met with Secretary sources will ride on which ones make it
of State Bill Bradbury several times in to the ballot and which ones don’t.
The Secretary of State’s office has
the last year to plead for more vigorous
until Aug. 2 to certify measures for this
enforcement.
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
Steelworkers’
deal at plant
may unravel
McMINNVILLE — Members of
the bargaining team for United Steel-
workers Local 8378 thought they had
a deal April 30 with Schnitzer Steel
Industries, owner of Cascade Steel
Rolling Mills. But as this issue went
to press, it appeared to have unrav-
eled.
The previous contract, which had
been extended day by day, expired
April 28. Cascade announced it
would stop collecting union dues as
of May 4 and start advertising for re-
placement workers — a move the
union interpreted as a provocation.
But then the two sides reached a ten-
tative agreement after an all-night
session with a federal mediator.
In the tentative agreement, man-
agement backed off from its demand
for a wage freeze, and union bargain-
ers agreed to accept annual increases
of 3.5 percent over the four-year con-
tract as part of a package deal in
which both sides made concessions
on other issues.
Local 8378 President Joe Munger-
said the 3.5 percent wage offer was
the best the union had seen in 30-
some years, but added that some
members weren’t happy with it. Cas-
cade Steel Rolling Mills is highly
profitable right now, and the stock of
its parent company, Schnitzer Steel
Industries, is up to $95 a share, dou-
ble what it was a year ago.
Besides the annual wage hike, the
deal increased starting pay, sick pay,
and life insurance; committed the
company to use all existing employ-
ees before contracting out for mainte-
nance, and promised to bring contrac-
tors in-house if they continue for an
extended time; improved safety train-
ing and the functioning of the joint la-
bor management safety committee;
extended the company’s production
bonus to workers on light-duty or
who work less than full time because
of military obligations; and gave the
option of automatic payroll deduction
to members who want to contribute to
the union’s political action fund.
The union didn’t get the increase
in the boot allowance it had sought,
and gave up its proposal that the con-
tract continue if the mill is sold.
The union announced April 30 it
would recommend the deal to the lo-
cal’s 400-plus members and set a rati-
fication vote for May 9. But shortly
before the vote, management said it
hadn’t agreed on one item the union
thought it had agreed to. The vote was
canceled, and the two sides scheduled
a meeting May 12 to see if they could
resolve the disagreement. At the
meeting, management stuck to its ver-
sion of the offer. A new date of May
15 was set for members to vote on
management’s last offer; this time,
the union would be recommending a
“no” vote. The results of the vote
weren’t known as of press time.
MAY 16, 2008