New Election Law in Oregon??

No party? Good luck getting on the ballot

Oregon elections - A new law makes it much more difficult for independent candidates to seek office

Monday, January 23, 2006

HARRY ESTEVE

Independent candidates, already a rare breed in Oregon, could be headed for extinction under a new, barely noticed law that took effect this month.

The Article

At first look this laws does make some sense but there seems to be a huge hole in it that makes absolutely NO sense to me.

Ok, I agree that if you vote for a party candidate for the U.S. Senate then you shouldn't be able to also endorse (by signing a petition for..) another candidate. The effect would be the same as being allowed to cast ballots in multiple party primaries.

But under this law if you vote for a candidate for mayor in your party primary you can't also sign for an Independent running for some other office.

If the law restricted you to casting your vote to only one person PER OFFICE I'd agree with it but as is currently sits, it seems like over-kill to me. (And I admit that this would be very hard to implement but...)

Whaddya think?