OPINION

How about a little rebellion?

By Hasso Hering
Saturday, February 25, 2006

It’s a good thing that the Oregon secretary of state is making a fuss about the nominating petitions of Ben Westlund, independent candidate for governor. The fuss calls public attention to an unjust and unnecessary new law.

And with any luck, that attention will result in a popular rebellion against the law, a rebellion by voters who don’t like that the state is trying to reduce their choices on the ballot.

The law was enacted as House Bill 2614. It purports to prohibit Oregon voters from supporting the nominations of independent candidates for “partisan office” if they also vote in the Democrat or Republican primaries.

“An elector,” the law says, “may not participate in more than one nominating process for each partisan public office to be filled at the general election.”

“Partisan office”? And here most of us thought that all we had in Oregon was public offices that could be filled by any qualified adult regardless of party label.

“May not participate”? What happened to the constitution? What happened to the right to free political expression as exercised through the ballot box? What about the right to free political association?

Voters, according to the law, cannot get around this abridgement of their liberties by leaving the primary-election ballot blank for an office for which they also signed an independent petition. The law says voters are “considered to have participated” in a partisan nomination if they voted in the Democrat or Republican primaries.

“Senator Westlund was a legislator when this passed and he knows what the rules are,’’ a spokeswoman for the secretary of state sniffed. “He knows that even if you disagree with a law, you don’t get to disregard it.’’

He is not disregarding anything. He is explaining how the law works.

Westlund, a formerly Republican state senator from Bend, had invited anybody to sign his independent nominating petition for governor. He pointed out that if voters later take part in the partisan primaries, their signatures on his petition won’t count. He is right about what the law says, and what the law says it unjust and wrong.

The apparent reason for the secretary of state’s complaint about Westlund’s appeal is that, if Democrats and Republicans accept his invitation in large numbers, this may complicate the processing of ballots and nominating petitions, for they will have to be checked against each other.

That shows those Oregon voters who are sick of partisan politics a way to make their point: Let’s all sign Westlund’s petition. And then let’s all vote in the respective Democrat and Republican primaries in May. Then let’s see how the state attempts to enforce this shameful new law.

“May not participate”?

Let’s tell our legislators just where they can get off if they attempt to tell us where and how we may participate in Oregon’s public life.

Hering, who has just changed his voter registration from Democrat to unaffiliated, can be reached at hhering@dhonline.com.