Sizemore Accuses Elections Office Of Misdirection

GOVERNMENT 

By Ethan Lindsey

Portland, OR  February 1, 2008 11:23 a.m.

The Oregon elections division has put an assortment of ballot initiative proposals on hold.

Elections officials say conservative activist Bill Sizemore and other petitioners are not in keeping with a new state law. That law bans initiative backers from paying petitioners per signature.

And to enforce that law, Secretary of State Bill Bradbury's office says it needs payroll records for the circulators, as well as copies of the signature sheets. Sizemore says he hasn't made any copies, and thus he can't continue to collect any new signatures.

But Sizemore says he turned in 72,000 signatures last year in support of several conservative proposals.

Bill Sizemore: “The Secretary of State, very arrogantly, has shut down the initiative process in Oregon. He has literally stopped us from circulating petitions.”

Sizemore says he can't time-stamp each individual signature and match that with the employee who collected it.

But, he believes the law only requires him to produce copies of the payroll records and the signature sheets.  If that's the case, he says he'll comply, and pay to produce the copies.

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© 2008 OPB