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NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Oregon lays out guidelines
for transgender students
PORTLAND (AP) —
The Oregon Department
of Education has suggested
that
all
transgender
students in the state should
be able to use whatever
names, bathrooms and
pronouns they want.
The department on
Thursday released 15
pages of guidelines on
issues that are likely to be
controversial,
including
allowing
transgender
women to play girls sports
and transgender men to
wear tuxedos to prom, The
Oregonian/OregonLive
reported.
“A student who says
she is a girl and wishes
to be regarded that way
throughout the school day
should be respected and
treated like any other girl,”
the document reads. “So
too with a student who says
he is a boy.”
The decision comes
after Dallas School District
Superintendent Michelle
Johnstone asked Gov. Kate
Brown for help in February.
The district, located west of
Salem, has been embroiled
in controversy since last
fall when Dallas High
School’s principal agreed
to let a transgender male
use the boys’ locker room.
Parents and students
in Dallas protested, but
the district’s lawyer said
they would likely lose the
lawsuit that would come if
they caved to community
pressure.
“There appears to be
conlict regarding the intent
of the Oregon Equality
Act,” Johnstone wrote to
Brown, referring to a state
law that bars discrimina-
tion on the basis of sex.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Education recom-
mendations do not lay out
punishments for districts
that ignore the guidelines,
but federal regulators have
warned schools in other
states that they could lose
funding if they discrimi-
nate against transgender
students.
Oregon now joins a
handful of states that have
issued similar recommen-
dations amid the increas-
ingly heated conversation
over transgender identity
including
Connecticut,
Massachusetts and New
York.
Lori Porter, a spokes-
woman
for
Beaver-
ton-based Parents Rights
in Education, said her
group disagrees with the
education
department’s
reading of state and federal
laws.
“Federal
law
is
clear,” the group said in
a statement, “that there
are no legal grounds to
require school districts to
open up their bathrooms
and changing rooms to
members of the opposite
biological sex.”
LGBT
advocacy
groups, however, said they
were grateful for the state’s
thoughtful recommenda-
tions.
“There are transgender
students throughout the
state of Oregon,” said
Andrea Zekis, a policy
director for LGBTQ advo-
cacy group Basic Rights
Oregon. “Providing a
place of privacy and safety
ensures students can grow
up to be an adult who can
participate in all aspects
of life. They should have
same opportunities as
everybody.”
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Extra ballots, Grant County
mix-up ahead of Oregon primary
By TAYLOR W. ANDERSON
The Bulletin
SALEM — Oregon
may have been irst on the
vote-by-mail train, but that
doesn’t mean the system
doesn’t have kinks.
Each primary election,
county clerks send out
thousands of extra ballots
to voters who wait until the
last two weeks before the
deadline to join a party or
make other changes to their
registration. This year has
been no different.
The problem? With more
than 2 million ballots to
send, clerks have to work
ahead of time to package the
ballots up for mailing.
While the deadline to
register, change parties
or ask for an Independent
Party ballot was April 26,
clerks had already prepared
millions of ballots, leading
thousands statewide to
receive a irst ballot with
their old information and a
second ballot with the new.
High interest during this
presidential election has
ampliied the issue, as voters
have locked to join the
major parties to vote in their
primaries. County clerks and
Secretary of State Jeanne
Atkins say the system is
working ine, and there’s no
need to fear that votes will
be counted twice.
“The implications that
somehow there’s fraud
tied to this have no basis
in facts,” said Tim Scott,
director of the Multnomah
County Elections Division.
“Through
the
election
management telesystem, we
can tell whether this is or is
not an active ballot.”
Still, the issues are wide-
spread enough that some
question whether vote-by-
mail, which was pioneered
in Oregon during the 2000
general election, is ready for
prime time, as U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden, D-Ore., is pitching
in Congress.
Atkins notiied voters this
week that they may have
received the wrong ballot
if they updated their voter
registration in the two weeks
leading up to the time ballots
were sent out.
Any voter who turns in
the irst ballot for their old
party will only have their
votes for nonpartisan ofices
like state Supreme Court or
mayor count. Statewide and
presidential picks wouldn’t
be counted if it was an
outdated ballot.
Deschutes County Clerk
Nancy Blankenship said the
system recognizes voters
who were sent multiple
ballots and sorts them out.
She said Deschutes County
voters who received two
ballots would have the
outdated, or irst, ballot inac-
tivated. If that voter returns
only the inactive ballot, only
the voters’ picks for nonpar-
tisan ofice would count.
If they returned both
ballots, the second would
count and the irst, inac-
tive ballot wouldn’t be
counted. Atkins and county
clerks said the state’s
online Centralized Voter
Registration system would
prevent the more than 3,600
Deschutes County voters
who were sent more than
one ballot — and thousands
more statewide — from
voting twice.
“We account for every
ballot,” Blankenship said.
Another factor that’s led
to more duplicate ballots
than usual is the inaugural,
state-run primary for the
Independent
Party
of
Oregon, which became a
major party last year after
reaching 5 percent of all
registered voters.
Unlike the Republican
and Democratic parties,
which allow only registered
members to vote in their
primaries, the Independent
Party is allowing any of the
524,000 voters who belong
to no party to vote in theirs.
But to receive a ballot, unaf-
iliated voters had to request
one.
Any of the 20,660 unaf-
iliated voters who notiied
their clerk they wanted an
Independent Party ballot
were subject to receiving a
nonpartisan ballot, followed
by the one they actually
asked for.
But it was a different
blip altogether that caused
a ballot mix-up in Grant
County.
Dan Becker, a registered
Independent
in
Grant
County, was surprised when
he opened his ballot enve-
lope and started reading the
list of candidates.
“As soon as I started
seeing names” Becker
noticed something was
amiss. He wasn’t holding
his party’s ballot. Instead,
Becker — along with nearly
300 other Independent and
unafiliated voters in the
county — received a Demo-
cratic Party ballot.
“I called the clerk’s ofice
and talked to the deputy
clerk (and) she said they
knew about it and they had
already mailed the new
ballots,” Becker said.
An ineligible candidate
was put on the Independent
Party ballot in Grant County,
and the ofice printed new
ones. But instead of printing
a new Independent ballot,
the clerk’s ofice printed the
Democratic Party ballot in
the blue, Independent Party
primary ballot.
Each of those 288 ballots
was delivered to registered
Independents and the unaf-
iliated voters who requested
the party’s ballot this May.
After quickly learning of
the mistake, Grant County
Clerk Brenda Percy person-
ally drove to the printing
plant in Prineville to pick
up the replacement ballots,
and the ballots were hand
delivered to post ofices in
eight towns so they would
quickly reach Independent
Party and unafiliated voters,
who would soon have two
ballots.
“I assure you that every
precaution will be taken to
ensure that the correct ballot
is voted,” Percy said.
The mix-ups come as
Wyden says he’ll unveil a
bill in Congress to make
voting by mail nationwide,
where he says voters face
the threat of states limiting
ballot access. Some states
are limiting polling hours
and requiring certain iden-
tiication to vote, Wyden
said at a press conference
unveiling his proposal this
week. That doesn’t exist
with vote-by-mail.
But critics are pouncing
on the slip-ups from this
primary season and say
mail-in voting shouldn’t go
nationwide.
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