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THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2021 A5 Oregon wineries seek to boost direct-to-consumer shipping limit BY MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Oregon wineries could in- crease the amount of wine they send directly to consumers un- der a bill that’s intended to help offset lost tasting room visitors. The state’s wine industry is calling on lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 406, which would allow them to ship five cases of wine per resident a month, up Postmarks Continued from A1 “We’ve all seen it every elec- tion cycle,” Fagan said at a hearing. “The news media, the county clerks, the secretary of state’s office, people in orga- nizations, various people just guessing have to constantly es- timate when is the unofficial last day to mail your ballot. It just creates confusion typically on those last five days before an election.” Rep. Dan Rayfield, D-Cor- vallis, the chief sponsor of HB 2687, said 130 voters in Mar- ion County alone cast ballots that did not count because they were received after the Nov. 3 election. “That is what this bill is try- ing to solve,” he said. Under Oregon law, ballots are mailed to voters 14 to 18 days before the election date. Because of uncertainties raised about the reliability of the U.S. Postal Service — although USPS said in a year-end re- port it delivered 99.89% of mail from voters to elections officials on time — more than the usual number of voters re- turned their ballots early. “We can and do encourage people to vote early,” Isabela Villareal, who spoke for the Next Up Action Project, said. “But that really does not solve the problem. “We know of Oregonians who become nonvoters and do not cast their ballots,” Villareal, from the current limit of two cases. More than 30 years have passed since Oregon created its “direct-to-consumer” wine shipping law and it’s due for an update due to restrictions as- sociated with the coronavirus, according to proponents. “With the pandemic, we are unfortunately seeing a lot of these wine tasting rooms being shuttered because they cannot carry out wine tastings” under mandates aimed at limiting the spread of illness, said Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, the bill’s chief sponsor, during a recent legislative hearing. The stakeholders in Oregon’s wine industry have negotiated a cap of five cases and aren’t seeking unlimited shipping, he said. who spoke for the former Bus Project, said. “They think they are too late to mail their bal- lots. and dropping off their bal- lots is a barrier due to mobility, transportation, lack of available drop-off locations, and confu- sion over mailing deadlines.” Among the organizations endorsing HB 2687 were the League of Women Voters of Oregon and the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. Although she did not tes- tify at the hearing, Gov. Kate Brown — herself a former secretary of state — identified election-day postmarks in her state of the state address as one of her three priorities to ex- pand access to voting. The others are election-day voter registration, which is proposed in House Joint Reso- lution 11, and use of informa- tion from agencies other than the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division to register voters automatically. Many Or- egonians do not drive or own cars. (That bill was not up for a hearing.) House Joint Resolution 11, which requires a statewide election, would amend the Or- egon Constitution to remove the 20-day deadline that voters put there in 1986. They did so after the attempted Rajneeshee takeover in Wasco County, al- though county and state offi- cials managed to thwart irregu- lar voter registrations. Oregon had election-day voter registration from 1977 to 1985, when lawmakers changed the deadline to the day before an election. Also heard by the commit- tee in addition to election-day postmarks and the constitu- tional change was House Bill 2679, which would allow some 17-year-olds to vote in party primaries if they turn 18 by the general election and if the po- litical party they affiliate with allows them to do so by rule. Rep, Jack Zika, R-Redmond, asked what would happen to election timelines if the Legis- lature allows for election-day postmarked ballots to count. Zika won his 2018 primary by just two votes of around 7,500 cast. Rayfield said he would propose a technical amend- ment to his bill to adjust the timelines. Yamhill County Clerk Brian Van Bergen, speaking for non- partisan county elections of- ficials, expressed reservations about the proposed changes. Democrats command super- majorities in both chambers, so they can pass them with- out Republican votes. They can only refer a constitutional change to voters, however. “We don’t think the system is broken,” Van Bergen said in re- sponse to a question by House Republican Leader Christine Drazan of Canby, who sits on the House Rules Committee. “We think there are opportuni- ties for improvement.” e e ENTER TO WIN THE MOUNTAINFILM GIVEAWAY! Win two tickets to the MOUNTAINFILM ON TOUR plus a $50 Old Mill District gift card! You can enter online, by email, or by mailing the form below. 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