If a voter as been classified as inactive by election authorities, should that person lose their ability to sign an initiative petition? That is the heart of a OR Supreme Court case now being argued.

The OR Secretary of State has said, “Yes, you should.” But her decision has been challenged in a case now before the OR Supreme Court.

Dan Meek, legal council for the OR Progressive Party, will argue on the Party’s behalf that the right of an inactive voter to sign petitions is retained by the voter and the signature should be counted, noting that prior decisions in Maryland and New York, both with similar constitutional language to Oregon’s, have found that inactive voters do not lose their right to sign just because they have been labeled inactive. As long as they meet the qualifications to be a registered voter, their signatures should be counted.

This is of interest to us at OPP because we have been active users of the initiative process. Mr Meek has pointed out that there are about 500,000 Inactive voters in Oregon and that in every signature drive, 3-5$ of all signatures are disqualified because the signers are labeled Inactive.