Voters will vote on five ballot measures on the Oregon November ballot. Based on my current understanding, I’ll be voting “No” on three of them, “Yes” on one of them and one I’m undecided on.
Three of the ballot measures were referral by Oregon legislators and two initiative petition.
(Unfortunately, the two School Choice measures did not collect enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Maybe in 2026.)
Ballot measure wonks can submit voter pamphlet language and financial estimate comments through Friday, August 2 at 5PM. elections.sos@oregon.gov.
Here is my quick rundown of three of these measures. I’ll comment on the other ones tomorrow.
Measure 115
Measure 115 will allow the Oregon legislature to impeach statewide elected officials. For some reason this was left out of the Oregon constitution in 1859.
Seems obvious that the state legislature should be able to impeach elected officials such as the governor, secretary of state, attorney general and treasurer accused of wrongdoing. If passed a process would allow such officials to be removed from office with a 2/3’s vote of the legislature.
Measure 116
Measure 116 establishes an ‘Independent Public Service Compensation Commission’ to determine to determine salaries for specified officials; eliminates legislative authority to set such salaries.”
The specified officials include all the officials who could be impeached under Measure 115 plus state senators, state representatives, Commissioner of Bureau of Labor and Industries and judges.
The demise of the previous commission politicized increasing salaries which is why Governor Tina Kotek earns $98,600 per year. This salary has not changed since 2014 and is less than most police officers earn when you include overtime. Disgraced former Secretary of State Shamina Fagan blamed her low salary of $77,000 for taking a $10,000 per month side gig from a cannabis company. Cry me a river.
The state estimates little financial impact from this measure because it does not increase salaries by itself.
Who will serve on the commission? Random voters? Or political insiders?
Rumor has it this measure could double the salaries of our ‘overworked’ legislators. My solution is that they should only pass ten bills per legislative session and only meet every other year like the good old days. Work less for the same salary.
There are numerous elected officials on this email list. I’m curious for your take on this ballot measure. Is it needed or not? Is it good or bad? I won’t disclose your name or position if I quote you in a future article.
Measure 117
Measure 117 “Gives voters option to rank candidates in order of preference; candidate receiving majority of votes in final round wins.”
This measure greatly complicates voting in a state where voter turnout is at historic lows despite Oregon’s 100% vote-by-mail system. Voters would be asked to vote for the favorite candidate and rank runner up candidates.
Measure 117 needs to be defeated or else it will join the Oregon Ballot Measure Hall of Shame.
The voting tabulation is so complicated that tabulation would be done in the Secretary of State’s office rather at county clerks’ offices. A candidate getting the most votes could lose the election. Going back to paper ballots counted in polling booths would be impossible under ranked choice voting.
How about voting on which of these 5 ballot measures is the worst.
Please vote for all 3 and rank your choice from one to three with #1 being the worst ballot measure and #5 being the best (or least worst) ballot measure. Those of you only voting for the worst measure will be penalized accordingly.
Go to www.ballotconfusion.org to complete your ballot.
That’s fake news by the way. There is no survey at that website. Yet…..
Writing this article inspired me to invest $7.48 to own that domain name for the next year. Let me know if you can help me create a ranked choice voting website. This could be a genuine public service.
With this website, families can use ranked choice voting to choose their Friday night video or decide which restaurant to eat out at. If ranked choice voting is too complicated for choosing a video or restaurant, let’s not use it to elect our next governor.
That’s the first three ballot measures. All three were referred to the voters by the legislature.
Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the two ballot measures which qualified for the ballot via initiative petitions. One not so bad and one very, very bad.