If you have any questions about anything the Secretary talked about, leave us a comment or head over to http://www.oregonvotes.org for all your elections information needs.

Let us know what you think, by commenting on the video on Youtube, or leaving a comment on this blog.

What makes a signature valid?

First and foremost, as with voting, only citizens who can legally vote in Oregon are eligible to sign a petition signature sheet. Next, only active, registered voters will count in the total verified signatures required to place an initative on the ballot and the signer must be active at the time he or she signs the petition signature sheet. If any Oregon voter is unsure of their registration status, they can look it up here.

Who verifies the signatures for initiative petitions?

The Secretary of State’s Elections division is responsible for conducting signature verification for state initiative petitions.

What are elections officials looking for?

Essentially, elections officials are looking to ensure two things: that all circulators are following the statutory requirements and administrative rules that govern signature gathering and to make sure that the signatures gathered are valid active electors.

In accordance with Oregon elections law, a petition sheet can be rejected for insufficient circulator certification for any number of reasons, including:

• no signature whatsoever appears below the certification
• no date appears next to circulator’s signature or the date is crossed out
• the date of the circulator certification is earlier than the date of the electors’ signatures, unless the circulator and the only signer are the same person
• the original date is crossed out, and a new date is provided, but the circulator failed to re-sign
• The date must be provided in month, day, year order if written in all numeric characters.
• the original signature of a circulator has been crossed out, and a different circulator’s signature is inserted
• the circulator has signed using only initials, unless the circulator’s use of initials as a signature is verified by exemplar
• the signature, printed name, and address are all illegible
• the signature alone is illegible, unless the circulator’s use of the apparently illegible signature is verified by exemplar

A full list of possible infractions leading to a petition sheet being rejected can be found here.

To insure that petition circulators are properly informed of the laws regulating signature gathering, the Secretary of State’s Elections Division has made its circulator training available online here. This helpful document gives all petition circulators all of the information they need to avoid violations and insure that the signatures they collect are counted.

Once a petition sheet is cleared to be processed, the signature verification process begins. This process includes:

• comparing the submitted cover and signature sheets to the approved versions
• verifying that each signature sheet is signed and dated by the circulator
• verifying that each signature sheet has the approved cover sheet copied on the back
• using a computer program to determine the actual number of signatures submitted
• using a computer generated report to randomly select the first and second samples of signatures selected for verification

What happens next?

After completion of signature verification of the first sample, the Elections Division processes and tabulates the results of the first sample and determines whether the initiative qualifies as a measure for the ballot. If the initiative fails to qualify, the elections officials conduct signature verification of the second sample.

After completing the second sample, the Elections Division determines if the initiative has enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. If it is determined that the petition has at least the required number of signatures to qualify for the ballot , the petition is assigned a measure number and will appear on the upcoming general election ballot, if not, it is rejected and will not appear on the ballot.

Why it’s important?

The initiative system has given us the eight hour work day, help for veterans, juries for civil trials, the vote for women, direct election of U.S. senators and the presidential primary.  After years of documented fraud and forgery, the Secretary of State’s office has tightened up the rules around signature-gathering to ensure that every initiative that goes before voters is placed there legally and legitimately. If you have further questions about the process, please feel free to drop us a line in the comments!

The petition required 110,358 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Of the 167,258 signatures accepted for verification, the Elections Division determined that 67.69 percent, or 113,218, were valid.

With today’s news, all six proposed Initiative Petitions submitted for the November election have completed the signature verification process. Joining IP 70 on the ballot will be IP 13, IP 28 and IP 77. Each of these will receive a measure number sometime next month.

For the most up to date elections news, please follow Oregon’s Elections Division on twitter @oregonelections and be sure to visit http://www.oregonvotes.org.

On Thursday, Secretary Brown went to the Portland riverfront to tape a five-minute segment called Comcast Newsmakers that will run at 55 minutes after the hour. She was one of 18 news makers interviewed in a beautiful sunny setting overlooking the Willamette River at the South end of Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

The host, a face familiar to many Oregonians, was Ken Ackerman, formerly a reporter for KGW in Portland. The conversation ranged from what makes Oregon’s flag unique to the initiatives that will appear on the fall ballot.

The segments will be seen on Comcast cable channels from Castle Rock in Southwest Washington to Eugene in the Willamette Valley.

Comcast expects the segments to start running Aug. 2 and continue through much of August. But we hope to get an advance copy of Kate’s segment before that so keep your eye peeled right here.

Initiative Petition 13, which imposes mandatory minimum sentences for certain major felony sex crimes and driving under the influence convictions, received 93,223 valid signatures.

The other ballot, Initiative Petition 28, which establishes a medical marijuana supply system in addition to assistance and research programs and the limited selling of marijuana, qualified with 85,848 valid signatures.

Our Elections Division has until Aug. 1 to determine which initiative petitions qualify for the ballot. Once that process is complete, each qualified petition will be assigned a measure number in the order in which the completed petitions were submitted for signature verification. Numbering will start with Measure 70, which will be assigned to one of the three referrals sent to the Nov. 2 ballot by the Oregon Legislature. The initiated measure numbers will begin this year with 73.

The results of all initiative petition signature verifications for the 2010 election will become final on Aug. 1, the constitutional deadline to complete signature verification. Until then, any legal challenges or amended verification reports could alter the final numbers.

For all your up-to-date elections information, please check out our elections division’s Twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/oregonelections

You’ll get insider looks into the initiative petition signature verification process, hear about upcoming events and deadlines and be able to ask elections staff your questions.

The final signatures were submitted around 4:30pm today.

The deadline for submitting ballot initiative signatures has come and gone and we have a short round-up of some of the numbers. Today, six citizen initiatives attempting to get on the Nov. 2, 2010 general election ballot submitted final signatures for verification to our Elections Division.

The Elections Division now has until Aug. 1 to determine whether the initiatives qualify for the ballot. Each submission will undergo a statistical sample to establish the number of valid signatures contained within each petition.

Once an initiative petition qualifies for the ballot, the Elections Division assigns a measure number in the order in which the completed petitions were submitted. The numbering will start this year with Measure 70, which will be assigned to one of the three referrals sent to the Nov. 2 ballot by the Oregon Legislature. The initiated measure numbers will begin with 73. Ballot measure numbers are no longer repeated.

The six proposed initiatives are:

Initiative Petition 13

Ballot Title Caption: Imposes mandatory minimum sentences for certain major felony sex crimes and driving under the influence convictions.

Needs: A statutory change requires 82,769 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Status: Of the 94,870 signatures accepted for early verification in May, 70.32 percent, or 66,716, were valid. By Friday, chief petitioners had submitted sheets purported to have 46,471 additional raw signatures.

Initiative Petition 28

Ballot Title Caption: Establishes medical marijuana supply system and assistance and research programs; allows limited selling of marijuana.

Needs: A statutory change requires 82,769 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Status: Of 109,843 signatures accepted for early verification in May, 67.86 percent, or 74,537, were valid. By Friday, chief petitioners had submitted sheets purported to have 22,390 additional raw signatures.

Initiative Petition 50

Ballot Title Caption: Amends Constitution: Transfers legislative redistricting responsibility following census from legislature to new appointed commission of retired judges.

Needs: A constitutional amendment needs 110,358 valid signatures to reach the ballot.

Status: Chief petitioners submitted sheets purported to have 125,948 raw signatures.

Initiative Petition 70

Ballot Title Caption: Amends Constitution: Modifies, indefinitely renews dedication of 15 percent of lottery proceeds to parks and natural resources.

Needs: A constitutional amendment needs 110,358 valid signatures to reach the ballot.

Status: Chief petitioners submitted sheets purported to have 192,678 raw signatures.

Initiative Petition 76

Ballot Title Caption: Amends Constitution: Creates exception to casino ban; legislature must allow one private casino if authorized by initiative.

Needs: A constitutional amendment needs 110,358 valid signatures to reach the ballot.

Status: Chief petitioners submitted sheets purported to have 176,566 raw signatures.

Initiative Petition 77

Ballot Title Caption: Authorizes Multnomah County casino; casino to contribute monthly revenue percentage to state for specified purposes.

Needs: A statutory change requires 82,769 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Status: Chief petitioners submitted sheets purported to have 136,938 raw signatures.

In addition to the ballot measures, there are the three measures, which were referred to the statewide ballot by the Oregon Legislature. Their numbers will be assigned once after completion of the signature verification process for the citizen initiatives.

Referral of  HJR 7

Ballot Title Caption: Constitution: Expands availability of home ownership loans for Oregon veterans through Oregon War Veterans’ Fund.

Referral of  SJR 41

Ballot Title Caption: Amends Constitution: Requires legislature to meet annually; limits length of legislative sessions; provides exceptions.

Referral of  SJR 48

Ballot Title Caption: Amends Constitution: Authorizes lowest-cost borrowing for state’s real and personal property projects.

Courtesy of German Naruto

We’ve spoken many times of the Central Business Registry, which allows people wanting to start a business in Oregon start filing online. Well, we have official word that the system has recently cracked the 100,000 registration mark, quite an achievement!

But that’s not the only good news coming from the CBR front. In fact, filings are up in general, an important ray of optimism in these tough economic times.

Currently, by logging on to the Filing in Oregon website, you can complete the Corporation Division, Department of Revenue and Department of Employment sections of the registry process entirely online, on one website. In the very near future, we’re bringing the Department of Consumer and Business Services directly into the system as well.

And the great thing about the Online Business Registry is that it was designed to be expandable. The next phase of the project includes plans to expand the system even further, allowing filers to take care of local government and licensing requirements instantly, online.  Implementing this phase will make our Online Business Registry truly one-stop shopping for everyone looking to file a business in this state.

Now that we’ve received the counties’ certifications, our State elections staff has until Thursday, June 17 at 5 pm, or 30 days after the election, to certify the results. As it is rare but not unheard of that a number changes before state certification, the numbers received from the counties on Monday will almost certainly be the final, official results. This ten-day state certification period allows the state time to compile the official state results out of 36 separate elections. We check the math and collate races that cross county lines, such as congressional districts, legislative districts and special service districts. We take special care to make sure the results are beyond reproach.

The deadline for requesting a recount is five days after the certification deadline, or in the case of the 2010 primary, Tuesday, June 22 at 5pm. A partial recount may be followed up by a request for a full recount no later than 10 days after that.