Anti-Petition Efforts get Worse!

The State Legislature has been advancing efforts to handicap the people’s ability to use the initiative process. Today is a hearing on HB 2640. Below is selected portions of testimony from petition rights activist Dan Meek on some of the dangerous proposals being considered.

TESTIMONY OF DANIEL MEEK AGAINST HB 2640:
THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL BAN ON SIGNATURE GATHERING WITHIN 100 FEET OF BALLOT DROP-OFF POINTS FOR 72 DAYS PER YEAR, OR MORE

HB 2640 contains many elements that are both unwarranted and unconstitutional. It extends the ban on collecting petition signatures from the reasonable (polling places on election day and where ballots are issued) to the absurd (100 feet of anywhere or any building where ballots can be deposited, for a full 18 days prior to any election). As Oregon has at least 4 vote-by-mail elections per year. That amounts to 72 days, or more than 2 full months, every year. It means that petitioning would be banned during that time anywhere near public libraries (which are ballot drop-off points), central meeting locations (including Pioneer Courthouse Square), and on public sidewalks that are within 100 feet of any entrance to the building where ballots can be deposited.…

The “no petitioning zone” extends to a 100-foot radius around the drop-off point, whether or not that includes public sidewalks and streets. Also the “no petitioning zone” extends to 100 feet from all sides of any building that contain s a ballot drop-off point and an entrance. That means that having a single ballot drop-off point inside a building that occupies a city block would ban petitioning in that block and in all of the 8 surrounding blocks. The court have expressly rejected the imposition of such “cones of silence.”…