Is It Time To Revamp Oregon's Initiative System?

POLITICS 

By Andrew Theen

Portland, OR  January 7, 2008 3:34 p.m.

The City Club of Portland will hear a report from some of its own members this Friday on Oregon's initiative system.

Wade Fickler is the executive director of the City Club of Portland.  He says one major suggestion is to involve the Oregon Legislature in determining what initiatives are approved for ballots.

Wade Fickler: "The recommendations are not so much revolutionary as evolutionary.  And we hope that it will spark a perhaps middle of the road dialogue about what we can do to improve our law-making processes in Oregon."

Fickler says he doesn't believe the system is broken, but he expects a feisty debate on Friday.

The report did not recommend altering the state's current system of verifying signatures on petitions.

Oregon initiative activist Bill Sizemore says he favors counting and verifying every signature, rather than the current system.  It uses statistical sampling.

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© 2008 OPB