All-Non-Partisan Elections in Oregon

A Proposed Oregon Constitutional Amendment
To be included in Article II, “Suffrage and Elections:”
All-Non-Partisan Elections

(1)   All elections within the State of Oregon shall be non-partisan, with no indication of political affiliation on the ballot.

(2)   A candidate for any lucrative office shall be placed on the primary election ballot only after submitting a sufficient number of signatures of qualified electors. 

(a)The number of nominating signatures for the primary election ballot shall be: a percentage of the total number of qualified electors for that office in the previous general election in which a Governor was elected to a full term; shall be set by the legislature; shall be uniform for all offices; and shall be not more than 0.1%.

(3)   Only candidates who receive the highest and second-highest number of votes in the primary election for any office shall be placed on the general election ballot.  Nomination for the general election ballot by convention or petition will not be recognized by the State of Oregon. 

(4)   Groups or individuals may purchase space in the voter’s pamphlet for endorsements of candidates, at the same rate charged for ballot measure arguments, to follow the respective candidate’s entry in the Voters’ Pamphlet.

(5)   No less than 10 weeks before the general election, each candidate for President of these United States must submit the name of a candidate for Vice President of these United States to the Secretary of State’s office.  Said candidate for Vice President must be an inhabitant of a different state than the nominating candidate.  The name of each candidate’s Vice Presidential nominee shall be listed with the nominating candidate on the ballot, and shall be accorded an entry following the nominating candidate’s entry in the Voters’ Pamphlet.

(a)   Within 15 days of being notified by the Secretary of State that a candidate has received the highest number of votes cast for President in Oregon’s Presidential general election, said candidate must submit names and addresses of Electors, equal to Oregon’s total number of Representatives and Senators in Congress, to represent said candidate and the State of Oregon in its Electoral College vote.

(6)   The Legislature, counties, cities, and towns shall enact such supplementary legislation as may be necessary to carry the provisions of this amendment into effect.  This amendment supersedes all existing inconsistent statutes.  It shall take effect within 90 days of enactment. 

(7)   If any part of this section or its application to any person or circumstances is held to be invalid for any reason, then the remaining parts or applications to any persons or circumstances shall not be affected, but shall remain in full force and effect.

Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener         541-955-9040         rycke@gardener.com

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