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June 16, 2006

"Fixing" the Initiative Process in Oregon

All the talk all of a sudden seems to be about the initiative process in Oregon. So this "wacky conspiracy theorist," as some see me, will go ahead and continue my ranting on the subject and see how many more people I can piss off.

I am really tired of the incessant efforts by some to impose all sorts of restrictions on the initiative process in the hopes they can stop the right-wingers from putting measures on the ballot. Each time a new law is passed, these anti-wingers complain about how the process still isn't working and how they will have to pass yet another law to fix the problem. Here's a message for you guys: the law changes aren't working because you don't understand the problem.

The recently passed law requiring petitioners to be paid by the hour and not by the signature did not fix the problem, as everyone can now readily see. For one thing, the law doesn't – and really can't – prevent bonuses and performance incentives. A company's handbook for petitioners can actually say flat out that you will make "x" amount if you collect 8 signatures per hour, "y" amount if you collect 15, and "z" amount if you collect 20 and it isn't against the law. What the law does accomplish, however, is it keeps the more professional signature gatherers from bothering to come work in Oregon.

You see, the law was a response to a false premise: that paid petitioners are somehow inherently corrupt. Not so. Some people actually choose petitioning as a career. Yes, it's true. And they're very good at it. They travel around the country and interact with people all day long and collect a lot of signatures (24 states have the initiative process, so there is plenty of work available). There really are a number of these people who are clean cut, honest, and reliable – professionals who can be counted on to accurately explain the measures to signers and to follow the law. They do a good job because they want to be hired back next time a petition is being circulated. These are the people who don't want to come to Oregon anymore.

Now Oregon initiative drives are more likely to attract petitioners who like making their year's income under the table in three months and partying the rest of the year. They'll tell you whatever you want to hear to get your signature. They're also more likely to go through the phone book and make up signatures so they can get paid more. They don't really care about their reputation because they're not thinking about a long-term career – they're thinking about making a quick buck and moving on.

The new solution: ban all paid signature gatherers. Some people are absolutely convinced that if only "true believers" are circulating petitions and no one is getting paid to do it, then suddenly the process will be wonderfully clean and we can have only good petitions like Death with Dignity and Medical Marijuana. Get the money out of the system, they say. But that is still not going to fix the problem.

Imagine inexperienced true believers out there circulating petitions. If anyone has a motive for gathering your signature as quickly as possible, these are the guys. They only have a little time to donate to the cause. After a few hours and only twenty signatures, they're likely to modify their hook to try to up their numbers.

And it's not like using volunteers will cut out the money from the process. It can actually be more expensive to put a measure on the ballot using volunteers than it is using paid signature gatherers. Someone has to organize and educate all those volunteers. Besides, progressives ought to consider that outside the union structure, volunteer efforts are next to impossible. If there is one thing I know, it's that volunteers are very hard to come by. Even the most dedicated can often give you only a few hours once a year. Many, many more people will tell you, "I don't have time to do it, but I'll give you some money and you can pay someone else to go collect them for me." Ah, so we're back to paid petitioning.

Most of the complaints people have about the initiative process fall into one of two categories – either they are problems that relate to not liking the issues or the number of issues (in which case, welcome to the world of free speech), or the law is being broken (in which case the answer is enforcement). As to the issue of enforcement, it is clear that the Secretary of State's office has little authority or financial ability to do anything about many of the laws already on the books, and free speech rights tie the hands of the Court in many other cases. But some of the most important problems – including improper reporting of contributions and expenditures, forgery, violating employment laws, and lying to or bribing people to increase signature collections – are already against the law and can and should be prosecuted. That would fix the problem.

Thanks to the "Thugette" Patty Wentz and her "union thugs" at Our Oregon (as Ted Piccolo likes to call them), people like Tim Trickey and Brian Platt are facing the music. And that's how it should be.

Posted by Becky at June 16, 2006 01:23 PM