As the Oregon Republican Party's recall attempt against Governor Kate Brown nears the end of the signature gathering process, supporters are claiming that the Secretary of State Elections Division is changing the rules on numbering the sheets. For example, this post has been circulating on social media:

The Elections Division has just notified us they are changing the rules of the game at the 11th hour. As one example, they are requiring us to spend many, many hours reorganizing and renumbering the petitions, when such action is neither necessary or required by law...

We believe these last minute changes are meant to burden us with frivolous tasks and avoid accountability if they decide to reject our petition as inadequate.

However, the State Initiative and Referendum Manual requires that “Chief petitioners or authorized agents number each signature sheet sequentially in the space provided.”



The signature validation process used by the Secretary of State uses sampling, which depends on referencing pages by sheet number. That's why it's necessary that the pages be numbered sequentially. The Oregon Republican Party pre-numbered the sheets and now is having to go back and sequentially number them.

This is not a new rule. The current State Initiative and Referendum Manual was adopted by administrative rule in March of 2020 and the section on numbering the sheets sequentially is not new.

The deadline to sign the recall is fast approaching. You can find out more by going to www.KateBrownRecall.org


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2020-08-22 08:29:24

Last Update: 2020-08-22 10:47:11