Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
9
Oregon legislators will try again to
restore prisoners’ voting rights
■
By Kira Lerner &
Julia Shumway
Oregon Capital Chronicle
Oregon legislators stymied
in their attempt earlier this
year to restore voting rights
to thousands of incarcerated
Oregonians will try again in
2022.
Rep. Lisa Reynolds,
D-Portland, announced
Thursday that she plans to
introduce legislation for
the February session of the
Oregon Legislature to restore
voting rights to people
serving time for felonies. If
passed, roughly 12,000 to
15,000 incarcerated people
would have their right to vote
restored.
The reform would mean
that all people incarcerat-
ed in the state, whether in
state prisons or county jails,
could vote while in deten-
tion. Oregon has barred
THREAT
Police response
prompted
Continued from page 1
to send your students to
school.”
Klickitat County Sheriff
Bob Songer said in a press
release that the threat arose
out of a nationwide trend on
social media platform TikTok.
The threat targeted Columbia
High School specifically and
identified Dec. 16 as the day
when violence was to occur.
A deputy was able to identify
and make contact with the
source of the threat, one
unnamed 14-year-old.
Deputy Dwane Matulovich
determined the threat was
not credible.
“The Klickitat County
Sheriff’s Office and other
law enforcement agencies in
Klickitat County are taking
inmates from voting since the
territory created the disen-
franchisement law in an 1857
constitutional convention.
“The right to vote is fun-
damental,” Reynolds said. “It
upholds the foundation of
our democracy and de-
mocracy works better when
everyone has a voice. We
cannot continue the decades
of disenfranchisement of
incarcerated individuals in
our state.”
The change would dis-
proportionately impact the
state’s African-American
population, as Black people
make up more than 9% of
Oregon’s prison population
despite comprising under 2%
of the state population.
Currently just Maine,
Vermont, and Washington,
D.C., allow people to vote
while incarcerated. If the
bill succeeds, Oregon
would be the first state to
end the practice of felony
disenfranchisement.
Although the proposal
never made it out of com-
mittee in the 2021 Oregon
session, advocates predicted
it stands a better chance in
February and they expect
most Democratic lawmakers
to sign on as sponsors. Five
Democratic legislators at-
tended the online campaign
launch on Thursday.
“This time around there is
even more energy,” said Zach
Winston, policy director of
the Oregon Justice Resource
Center, which is advocating
the change. “Our coalition
has grown by 10 organiza-
tions, and there is significant
community support.”
Winston explained that the
last legislative proposal failed
after the state Corrections
Department produced an
“unexpected” fiscal note,
estimating the cost to let
inmates vote in the current
two-year budget cycle would
be more than $400,000.
The cost was for hiring two
full-time employees to help
incarcerated people register
to vote.
“We didn’t have a chance
to combat it,” he said.
This year, Reynolds said
she’s intent on proposing a
policy change that shouldn’t
trigger any fiscal impact and
is talking to the Corrections
Department to assuage
concerns about needing
additional staff.
Sen. Akasha Lawrence
Spence, a Portland Democrat
recently appointed to the
Senate, said legislative turn-
over could also help pass the
proposal. The senator she
replaced wasn’t among the
co-sponsors of the 2021 bill,
and the northwest Oregon
coast will soon have a new
Democratic senator instead
of state Sen. Betsy Johnson,
who co-chaired the commit-
tee that took no action on the
last legislation.
“There’s going to be a
lot more diversity in both
chambers in terms of lived
experience, in terms of racial
background and ethnic
background and things like
that,” Lawrence Spence said.
“I think that that’s going to
be a different driving force
behind this.”
Incarcerated Oregonians
would cast ballots using their
last known address before
incarceration. Last session,
there was confusion among
lawmakers about that point,
Winston said, with some con-
cerned they would use the
prison as their address.
All Oregonians who are
registered to vote automati-
cally receive their ballots in
the mail, and a 2019 law add-
ed pre-paid return envelopes.
Ballots can’t be forwarded,
but people can have them
sent to a temporary address,
such as a college dorm or a
county jail. People waiting
for trial or serving time for
a misdemeanor retain their
right to vote.
“We’re perfectly situat-
ed to actually do this,” said
Isabela Villarreal, policy and
communications manager
for Next Up Oregon, which is
also supporting the change.
“Because of paid postage,
they wouldn’t even have to
try to find a stamp or pay for
a stamp.”
Secretary of State Shemia
Fagan is supporting the
coalition working to pass the
legislation, according to the
coalition.
any threat serious, despite
the TikTok challenge,” Songer
said.
Online news organization
The Verge reported on Friday
that Districts in California,
Texas, Minnesota, and
Missouri announced plans
to cancel school Friday, and
that other districts planned to
heighten security measures
in response to the reports.
TikTok’s communica-
tions team said in a Twitter
post that “We handle even
rumored threats with utmost
seriousness, which is why
we’re working with law
enforcement to look into
warnings about potential vio-
lence at schools even though
we have not found evidence
of such threats originating or
spreading via TikTok.
“We’ve exhaustively
searched for content that
promotes violence at schools
today, but have still found
nothing. What we find are
videos discussing this rumor
and warning others to stay
safe, the company said in the
post. “Local authorities, the
FBI, and DHS have con-
firmed there’s no credible
threat, so we’re working to
remove alarmist warnings
that violate our misinforma-
tion policy.”
White Salmon Valley
Superintendent Sean
McGeeney said the threat
appeared to target Columbia
High School. It emerged from
Instagram, he said.
Columbia High School
Principal Craig McKee
notified McGeeney and law
enforcement officials, who
then were in constant com-
munication with one another,
McGeeney recalled during a
regular meeting of the White
Salmon Valley School Board.
Two to three sheriff’s
deputies were posted on and
around campus as well as an
officer from Bingen-White
Salmon Police Department
on Thursday, McGeeney
said.
Meanwhile, McGeeney
said district staff were present
and aware of the threats and
had been keeping eyes on the
campus throughout the day.
It was literally all hands on
deck,” he said.
In a phone interview,
McGeeney recounted the
district’s “open and fluid
communication between
staff members and law
enforcement.”
“Everything moved as it
was supposed to move,” he
said. “The kids’ safety stayed
as a focus the whole time.”
During Thursday’s school
board meeting, board
member Billy Gross noted
parents told him they had
not received an alert from the
school that day.
McGeeney responded by
noting the communication
with the community was not
perfect. The first message
that was sent out exceed-
ed their communication
system’s character limit,
causing the message to not
be sent via text message.
One parent said during the
public commenting period
that some parents received
emails while others did not,
“Because I did not get an
email. But then in the after-
noon to tell parents every-
thing safe and most parents
had no idea until they got
that text in the afternoon that
everything’s safe… why can
you not communicate to us
in the beginning that you are
investigating something?”
Goldendale
Superintendent Ellen
Perconti told The Goldendale
Sentinel that “Monday morn-
ing, GHS received informa-
tion regarding a student who
had made statements that
were perceived as a possi-
ble threat. The student was
pulled aside before entering
classes on Monday morning
prior to any interaction with
students. The situation was
handled professionally and
appropriately by (Goldendale
High School Principal) Mr.
Westerman and GHS staff.”
Perconti had not respond-
ed to a request for comment
on Friday’s closures by press
deadline.
While no threats were re-
ported at Wasco County and
Hood River County schools,
both districts sent out
announcements reminding
parents who have concerns
about a student’s mental
well-being to contact the
student’s principal, and that
SafeOregon is a statewide
program that allows anyone
to report a tip regarding
school safety.
Hood River Valley High
School Principal Columba
Jones asked parents not
to repost threats on social
media, saying it “serves no
purpose other than adding
to the fear and uncertainty of
the situation.”
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