Please see Governance Overview here.

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• Overview

• Elections

• Artificial Intelligence /Cybersecurity

• Campaign Finance

• Privacy and Protections

• Miscellaneous

Overview, second week of session

Rebecca Gladstone

The session’s second week saw pressure coming to bear in governance. ORESTAR, the Oregon Elections System for Tracking and Reporting, was built in-house in 2007, apparently lacking update mechanisms (all this time!). Replacing ORESTAR from scratch, comparatively estimated at more than $25M, or perhaps patching it, seems inextricably tangled in the earlier session’s campaign finance reforms, requiring software updates. The reforms have not been implemented.

We have filed testimony on more than half of the governance bills we’re following. Informational hearings in Joint Committee Information Management Technology are well worth watching, this week for protecting local journalism and data breach policy. We’re hoping to catch a few more immigration bills in the second chamber, expecting amendments. We’re conserving energy and stepping back when bills already have vigorous support, and, nearly daily, we’re discussing possibilities for action alerts. See our reports for details, thank you for reading, and watch your email etc. for likely action alerts, including for federal issues. Thanks are due to our volunteers for their long hours! 

Elections

Barbara Klein 

• SB 1509 (Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act), a committee sponsored bill to further protect Oregon’s voters from being disenfranchised by faithless presidential electors, had a hearing on February 9th in Senate Rules. The League submitted written and verbal testimony (minute 16:10) was given. A work session was held on February 11th during which time the bill passed out of committee with a “do pass” recommendation on sponsor-supported amendments and with a unanimous vote. The bill was described in more detail in past weeks -it would allow Oregon to join other states with strong laws.

• SB 1574 (1st Time Voters Act) allows 17-year-olds to vote in a primary if they will be 18 by time of the general election, it’s been referred to Senate Rules and is scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday February 18 th (8:00 am). Four testimonies have been drafted and approved but not yet submitted from Members of the League Youth Council. These will be shared in our next legislative report. LWVOR is one of the 20 organizational sponsors of this bill, sponsored by Sen.ChrisGorsek@oregonlegislature.gov.

• HJR 201, a house joint resolution, was heard in the House Committee on Rules on February 5, 2026. It proposes an amendment to the Oregon Constitution to require that primary elections are ‘open’ to all voters using the same ballot. The proposal is for a “Top Two” system that our League does not support, despite our strong endorsement of “Open Primaries.” The League has submitted Neutral testimony.

Artificial Intelligence/

Cybersecurity 

Lindsey Washburn

SB 1546 (Notice of Artificial Output): requires AI companion and platform operators to disclose that users are interacting with artificial output, implement safety protocols to detect and prevent suicidal ideation, and provide special protections for minors. The -2 amendment was passed. 

Campaign Finance

Norman Turrill

The House Rules Committee, with the collusion of labor union lobbyists and business lobbyists, seems to be attempting to completely betray the deal made in 2024 for withdrawing Initiative Petition 9 on campaign finance reform (CFR) in exchange for passage of HB 4024 and agreeing to work on technical fixes without policy changes. In 2024, the deal was made after extensive 4-way negotiations between Honest Elections Oregon (HEO, with the Oregon League as a constituent organization), legislative leaders including Speaker Fahey, labor union lobbyists, and business lobbyists. 

The betrayal is in the form of a 92-page  -8 amendment to a gut-and-stuff bill, HB 4018, posted just hours before the committee hearing. The amendment includes many complex policy changes, essentially allowing big special interest organizations to continue dominating campaign finance in Oregon, contrary to voters’ will and interests, while still limiting individual contributors. The amendment also delays HB 4024 election law changes for 4 years and substantially erodes financial disclosure requirements. See League testimony and recommending Sen Golden’s video testimony. 

This is likely to be one of the most important bills during the current short Legislative session, so League members and voters should contact legislative leaders and their legislators ASAP to oppose the -8 amendment. The work session is 8am, Feb 17. 

Also last month, the state Elections Division issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to replace ORESTAR and implement HB 4024 (2024) provisions. The RFP appears to only allow large corporate bids for the project. HEO has asserted that HB 4024 does not require more than minor ORESTAR changes, but the Secretary of State continues to conflate the two projects, requesting $25 million without detailing how it would be used. 

Late addition: A video testimony from the Civic Software Foundation, stated that they could provide [ORESTAR replacement] software in compliance with HB 4024 for much, much less than $25 million, describing that they built Portland’s Small Donor Elections System software as open source, with scaling up to ORESTAR needs in mind.

Privacy and Protections and more…

Rebecca Gladstone

HB 4091 this Oregon National Guard activation and authority bill passed with two against, not on partisan lines, no amendments, from House Emergency Management and Vets. It was referred to Sen Rules, without a recommendation. See supporting League testimony, and relating to last session, see League HB 3954 testimony.

(See other immigration-related bills in Social Policy Legislative Report.)

HB 4123 This landlord-tenant privacy bill passed from a House Housing and Homelessness committee work session by a unanimous vote, adopting a -1 amendment with fixes to allow sharing contact information to admit maintenance workers, for example. See League testimony, in support. (See also the Housing Section of the Social Policy Legislative Report.)

SB 1530 would expand aggravated harassment to include threatening public officials, and increase penalties with the companion bill, SB 1516. It was heard in Senate Judiciary, with a work session set for Feb 16. See League testimony in support.

And following these:HB 4024, which prevents event ticket resale unless the seller has or can get tickets. It passed from a work session in House Labor and Business, partially on partisan lines, then from a House floor vote with only two against, one excused. No amendments have been filed. A public hearing and work session have been scheduled for Feb 16^th and 18^th  in Senate Labor and Business. All testimony is in support, and the League will file in support also, if need be. See League testimony, in support of Senator Prozanski’s SB 430

Enrolled (2025) consumer protections, foundational for HB 4024.

HB 4055, which we have been following for data breach policy development, was pulled by the JCIMT (committee) for more careful deliberation in a long session.

HB 4143 addresses fund payments between federal and state accounts, with sponsor, Rep Chotzen echoing our characterization of using a “foundational financial tool” [the “right to offset”]. See our earlier LR and League testimony, urging to consider options and possibly amendments, given our revenue volatility. It passed on partisan lines from House Rules. The -1adds unemployment, medical leave, and overtime to payroll taxes as exclusions. It would sunset in 10 years, to evaluate if the tool is no longer needed.

 We could use your help, even with watching hearings from home and sharing thumbnail reports. Let us know, write to lwvor@lwvor.org.  

Miscellaneous

Chris Cobey

SJR 201 (kicker reform) Proposes an amendment to the Oregon Constitution to require a portion of surplus revenue that would otherwise be returned to personal income taxpayers to be used for funding public kindergarten through grade 12 education, community colleges and wildfire prevention and suppression, if surplus revenue exceeds a certain threshold. Refers the proposed amendment to the people for their approval or rejection at the next regular general election.  Public hrg to be held Feb. 18 in Sen Rev & Fin.  

HB 4017 (use of campaign funds for security): Provides that amounts received as contributions by a candidate, principal campaign committee of a candidate and principal campaign committee of a holder of public office may be used for specified security-related expenses. Work session held Feb. 12 in House Rules; do pass rec 7-0.

Interested in reading additional reports?  Please see our Climate Emergency, Revenue, Natural Resources, and Social Policy report sections.