Governance
Legislative Report Dec 5-9, 2022
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Governance
By Norman Turrill, Governance Coordinator, and Team
Campaign Finance Reform
The Honest Elections Oregon coalition, of which the LWV of Oregon is a part, has filed two new initiatives for the 2024 general election ballot. Both IP 8 and IP 9 are in the long ballot title process and have received certified ballot titles from the Attorney General’s office. These are now on appeal to the Oregon Supreme Court.
Redistricting
The People Not Politicians coalition, in which the LWVORAF is a leader, has now received certified ballot titles for its two initiatives for the 2024 general election ballot, IP 13 and IP 14. The coalition will now decide which of these initiatives to circulate and begin collecting petition signatures probably in January. A legislative concept bill has been filed.
Election Methods
By Barbara Klein
Oregon RCV (promoting Ranked Choice Voting) has received bill language from Legislative Counsel. The language is similar (in part) to their proposed initiative ballot measure last year. Of note is that, while it includes some state offices and federal elections (except president), it does not include State Senators or State Representatives.
All Oregon Votes (or Oregon Open Primaries) has received a draft concept bill prepared by Legislative Counsel to establish Open Primaries with a Final Four (although the goal is Final Five). The Legislative Concept does not include a new election system (although the group is currently functioning with that intent, and working on alternative language).
STAR voting: Mentioned in the last LR, advocates have received draft ballot titles for two petitions, IP 11 and IP 12, (title: “Establishes New Voting System; Voters Score Candidates from Zero to Five Stars.”) It is unclear whether they are seeking a bill in the legislature as well.
Cybersecurity, Elections, and Privacy
By Becky Gladstone
LWVOR recognizes that the foundation of our democracy, our elections, depend on critical infrastructures. For the 2023 session, we’ll cover multiple cybersecurity, elections, and data privacy bills.
Seismic preparations, our electrical grid, and our data all need management and protection. Our Coalition Against Hate Crimes is discussing recent Portland area grid attacks. Expect legislation from the Oregon State Seismic Policy Advisory Commission. Resiliency takes collaboration, as called for in this report, Seismic Implications of Portland Area Bridges.
Cybersecurity
Large 2023 proposals are coming from various sources:
Joint Information Management and Technology: The Cybersecurity Center of Excellence proposal will return as HB 2034 (not posted yet, LC 966). It passed again with unanimous committee support on Dec 9, as it had during the 2022 short session, when it did not progress, possibly due to time constraints.
The OR Dept of Emergency Management (ODEM) will apply retroactively to administer a $3m FEMA and CISA state and local cybersecurity grant. The grant requires 80% of funds to go to local projects.
DAS (Dept of Administrative Services), Enterprise Information Services (the office of the State CIO) has formed a multi-jurisdictional cybersecurity planning committee to oversee plan development and use of federal grant funds administered by ODEM for state and local cybersecurity assessment, adoption of best practices, and target acquisition and deployment of cybersecurity tools and services.
Election Issues
Numerous Rules Committee election LCs show promise, addressing a broad range of topics. League member Rebecca Gladstone was appointed to the Oregon Department of Revenue’s Rules Advisory Committee (RAC) to help develop an Oregon Administrative Rule for OAR 150-306-0130, “Oregon Land Information System Fund and the ORMAP Project” (ORMAP). This project continues our geospatial coordinating efforts between various state district mapping entities, including elections.
We will follow and speak to four LCs the SoS shared pre-session. They need more funding to address misinformation. The state Elections Director cited “extraordinarily challenging time for elections officials” with her resignation on December 10th.
Election privacy and harassment: League testimony called for expanding HB 4144 Enrolled (2022) and LC 275 reopens this.
The 2023 Elections omnibus bill, LC 278, has many changes in elections administration details and calls for long-needed improvements.
Elections funding: For consistent and sustainable funding across Oregon, a study is proposed, reports due September 2024.
Voter Registration: An expansion pilot project would assist those leaving the Powder River Correctional Facility with ID cards and voter registrations. This collaboration includes the OR Health Authority, ODOT, the Dept of Corrections, and the OR Assn of CO Clerks.
Data Privacy
The Attorney General’s data privacy work group will present comprehensive legislation in 2023. We expect to see the HB 4017 A (2022) data broker registry to be included and to retain support, with this long session allowing time for passage. Their HB 3284 Enrolled (2021) adapted to the emergency need to protect personal health data privacy with contact tracing legislation for COVID conditions.
SB 1573 B (2020) In a related privacy issue, Sen. Dembrow discussed updating Juvenile expungement, for records based on contacts that were not referred to juvenile court.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED:
The League has positions to speak to the issues above. We can use volunteers to help for all of them as we prepare for the 2023 legislative session. For example, former legislator Barbara Ross (RIP) expertly covered Judiciary and juvenile records for the League. There are other worthy causes going unaddressed for lack of League volunteers. Please contact our staff at lwvor@lwvor.org who can direct you within our Action Committee.