A10
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
Gun control measure
would raise local costs
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Only one of the four
statewide ballot measures Oregonians
will vote on in November comes at a
financial cost to local governments.
That measure would ban the sale of
high-capacity ammunition magazines,
require a firearm safety course, tighten
licensing and create stricter background
checks on weapons purchases. A com-
mittee involving the Secretary of State’s
Office and legislative analysts deter-
mined it would cost the state over $23
million but generate about the same
amount in revenue. The measure would
cost local governments up to $31 million
in its first year.
Three other statewide ballot measures
— that would punish absentee lawmak-
ers, strip mention of slavery from the
Constitution and make health care a con-
stitutional right — have little or no impact
on state finances, analysts determined.
State officials will consider changes
to the financial impact statements and
any changes will be made before Aug.
10, according to Ben Morris, commu-
nications director for the Secretary of
State’s Office.
The Financial Estimate Committee, a
partnership of the Legislative Policy and
Research Office and the Oregon Secre-
tary of State’s Office, will host the meet-
ing. The committee is tasked with evalu-
ating the costs of ballot measures before
including them in voter pamphlets and on
ballots.
Its five members are Secretary of State
Shemia Fagan, state Treasurer Tobias
Read, Revenue Department Director
Betsy Imholt, Administrative Services
Director Katy Coba and a local govern-
ment representative, currently accountant
Tim Collier.
Boosting gun safety
More than 160,000 Oregonians
signed a petition to get a new gun con-
trol proposal on the November ballot.
Initiative Petition 17 would require any-
one buying a firearm to obtain a permit
by passing a safety training course. Cur-
rent gun owners would have to obtain
permits for any future gun purchases if
the law were enacted. It would also ban
the sale of ammunition magazines con-
taining more than 10 rounds and require
background checks on everyone who
buys a gun, no matter the wait. Current
state and federal gun laws require crimi-
nal background checks, but a loophole in
federal law allows gun dealers to sell fire-
arms without a completed background
check if it takes longer than three days to
complete.
The measure would require expendi-
tures but would also bring in money.
Cost to state government:
• About $2 million in one-time
expenses and $21 million between
2023-25 to provide additional staff and
resources for the Oregon State Police for
background checks and issuing permits.
The Oregon Judicial Department would
likely have increased costs and cases
related to new crimes established by the
law and among people appealing permit
denials.
Revenue for state government:
• Up to $23.5 million for the state
from fees for fingerprinting, FBI back-
ground checks and judicial filings.
Cost to local government:
• More than $51 million in the first
year to process an estimated 300,000 per-
mit applications a year.
• More than $47 million in subsequent
years to process permits.
Revenue for local government:
• Nearly $20 million per year in appli-
cation fees.
Punishing absentee lawmakers
Initiative Petition 14 would amend
the state Constitution to make lawmakers
ineligible for reelection if they have 10 or
more unexcused absences from floor ses-
sions. Such sessions involve debates and
voting on new laws. The measure aims to
stop Republican lawmakers from block-
ing legislation by walking out or refusing
to show up.
Republican lawmakers did that five
times in 2019 and 2020 to prevent or stall
action on guns, forestry, health care, the
education budget and climate change.
Oregon’s Constitution requires that two-
thirds of legislators be present for a vote.
This means that if more than 20 repre-
sentatives or more than 10 senators are
absent, a vote cannot take place.
The initiative is not expected to cost
state or local governments anything and
would not generate any revenue, accord-
ing to the committee.
Removing slavery as punishment
for crime
Initiative Referendum 402 would
remove slavery and indentured servitude
as accepted criminal punishments in the
Oregon Constitution. Currently, Oregon
is one of 10 states that technically still
allows such punishment in sentencing. It
would add language to the Constitution
allowing state courts and probation and
parole officials to order alternatives to
incarceration such as education and treat-
ment, too. A grassroots advocacy group,
Oregonians Against Slavery & Involun-
tary Servitude, which was established in
2020 by alumni of Willamette University,
is behind the initiative.
The committee determined that any
costs are tentative.
“The impact of the measure will
depend on potential legal action or
changes to inmate work programs,” the
committee concluded.
Health care as a constitutional
right
Initiative Referendum 401 would
amend the state Constitution to make
access to affordable health care a right and
make Oregon the first state in the nation
to secure such a right for its residents.
It would require the state to ensure
access to “cost-effective, clinically appro-
priate and affordable health care” for res-
idents, balanced against obligations to
fund public schools and other essential
public services, according to the petition.
The committee could not deter-
mine the financial impacts of the mea-
sure because amending the Constitution
would not cost extra money, but laws cre-
ated to ensure the new right would.
“The impact of the measure will
depend on future legislative action to
establish additional health benefits and
determine how they will be paid for,” it
wrote.
Pamplin Media Group, File
A state-ordered audit has concluded that Clackamas County’s tally from the May 17 primary election was accurate,
despite faulty printed barcodes that required hand-duplication of thousands of ballots.
Audit: Clackamas tally accurate
By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — A state-ordered
audit has concluded that Clacka-
mas County’s tally of results from
the May 17 primary election was
accurate, despite faulty printed bar-
codes that required hand duplica-
tion of thousands of ballots.
The special audit, which Sec-
retary of State Shemia Fagan
ordered on June 10, was in addi-
tion to the regular post-election
audits required in all of Oregon’s
36 counties, which conduct the
elections. The regular audits turned
up no problems in Multnomah and
Washington counties.
Audits usually involve county
election workers pulling a statisti-
cally significant random sampling
of ballots in statewide races off the
shelves — ballots are normally tal-
lied by optical scanners or other
machines — and counting them
by hand. Then the samples are
matched against the machine-tal-
lied results to verify their accuracy.
The state order for Clacka-
mas County was more exten-
sive. It required workers to ver-
ify that the ballots they duplicated
by hand were transcribed accu-
rately, in addition to the standard
requirements. The order specifies
which batches of ballots should
be recounted from six countywide
races. The batches were randomly
selected, as were the races.
Clackamas County completed
its special audit by the state dead-
line of June 23.
Fagan, who lives in Clackamas
County, said in a statement on Aug.
5:
“I mandated Clackamas County
elections to conduct a hand recount
and investigate the ballot dupli-
cation process to ensure that bal-
lots with misprinted barcodes
were counted correctly. Clacka-
mas County can rest assured that
this rigorous post-election audit
verified that the May 2022 election
results were 100% accurate.
“This post-election audit was a
necessary step in assuring Clack-
amas County voters, and all Ore-
gonians, that they can continue
to trust in the integrity of Oregon
elections.”
The secretary of state is Ore-
gon’s chief elections officer.
County election workers did
find one ballot that was duplicated
incorrectly. There also were some
minor discrepancies in the num-
bers tallied for candidates, though
the overall totals of ballots cast
were correct, and the discrepancies
had no effect on any of the election
races chosen for audit.
The contests were Clackamas
County commissioner positions 2
and 5 — incumbents Paul Savas
and Sonya Fischer are headed for
Nov. 8 runoffs, since neither won
a majority in the primary for the
nonpartisan offices — plus party
nominees for U.S. senator, and
unopposed candidates for three
nonpartisan judgeships on the
Clackamas County Circuit Court,
Oregon Court of Appeals and Ore-
gon Supreme Court. Ten races for
precinct committee persons also
were covered.
According to the order, the
batches represent 10% of the total
ballots cast. Depending on the race,
between 90,000 and 98,000 ballots
were cast in Clackamas County in
the primary. The audits cover sam-
plings of the total.
Clackamas County Clerk Sherry
Hall certified primary results on
June 14.
The June 10 state order laid
out justification for the special
audit: “In order to certify results
on time, the county required hun-
dreds of additional staff, an emer-
gency response from the county
government, added security mea-
sures, several revisions to the secu-
rity plan, and increased oversight
by the Secretary of State’s Office.”
According to county records,
workers put in 6,700 hours and the
clerk’s budget was increased by
at least $80,000 to cover the extra
costs.
County commissioners have
scheduled an Aug. 10 session with
Hall to review her plans for con-
ducting the Nov. 8 general election,
when Hall will be up for election to
a sixth four-year term. Though the
clerk is an independently elected
official, the office budget is sub-
ject to approval by the county bud-
get committee, which consists of
the five elected commissioners and
five public appointees.
Unrelated to the primary elec-
tion fiasco was another error, which
involved thousands of voters in
Oregon City received their may-
oral election ballots with an error
in the voters’ pamphlet for a dif-
ferent election being held for Oak
Lodge Water Services District res-
idents, who live across the Clack-
amas River and several miles to
the north. About 3,800 households
in the McLoughlin and Park Place
neighborhoods will receive the cor-
rect voters pamphlet in a separate
mailing. That special election is
Aug. 23.
Board Chairman Tootie Smith
issued this statement on June 16:
“Moving forward, the county is
100% committed to minimizing the
risk that an elections failure could
happen again. I want to be transpar-
ent about what that means.
“I have met with the clerk and
provided the county’s procurement
and financial support to (1) select
a new ballot printer, (2) upgrade
outdated equipment to insure state-
of-the-art systems are in place and
(3) update necessary software. It is
also essential that quality control
testing with printed ballots be sub-
stantially improved before future
distribution.
“All of this will be expedited so
that our next election in August can
be carried out without interruption.
“I also expect the clerk to con-
duct a thorough review of her
operations and decisions follow-
ing the primary election, as well
as her full cooperation with the
audits requested by the secretary
of state. I expect her findings to
be presented to the full Board of
Commissioners.”
No Matter
how big or small your trophy was
or if you just want to share a hunting adventure,
send or drop off your best
hunting photos or stories
to
195 N Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845 • kim@bmeagle.com
Your photos could be published in this year’s EAGLE HUNTING JOURNAL
Please have them to the Eagle by August 8.