PETITIONS SLIDE THROUGH LEGAL LOOPHOLE

Labor Groups' Complaints Are Stymied by the Timing of a New Oregon Law

A coalition of labor groups says it has found evidence of widespread
use of illegal practices to gather signatures for several
conservative initiatives aimed for the November general election ballot.

But the practices in question, including the use of carbon paper to
duplicate printed names and addresses on multiple signature sheets
for different initiatives, were not illegal until Jan. 1, when a new
law governing Oregon's initiative system went into effect. The
signature sheets examined by the labor coalition were all dated before Jan. 1.

As a result, Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, who has scheduled a
news conference on the subject today, has concluded that no action
can be taken against the petition sponsors.

"We have not seen any examples of the law being broken at the time
these signatures were gathered," said Don Hamilton, a Bradbury
spokesman. "If these practices were used today, they would be illegal
and (the sponsors) would be subject to criminal sanctions. If you
follow the law, there's nothing for us to do."

Nine of the 10 initiatives that appear to have qualified for the Nov.
4 ballot were sponsored by three veteran conservative activists: Bill
Sizemore, Russ Walker and Kevin Mannix. Aware of the new law's more
stringent requirements and its effective date, they rushed to gather
voter signatures on petitions before Jan. 1.

About two weeks ago, representatives of Our Oregon, a labor-backed
activist group, and several labor unions, met with Bradbury to show
him the results of their research into the conservative
signature-gathering operation. Hamilton said Bradbury agreed that the
evidence showed the use of practices, such as the changing of dates
on signature sheets, that are now outlawed, but that they all
occurred before Jan. 1.

"Bradbury is absolutely right," said Kevin Looper, executive director
of Our Oregon. "But a large part of this is about forgery and fraud
that have always been illegal."

Looper said the signature sheets examined by Our Oregon indicated
instances of outright forgery, including the same person signing as
two different petition circulators, the same person signing all the
names of voters on a signature sheet and the same handwriting in two
different names.

He said he believes but cannot prove that many of the signatures were
generated by a handful of people known as a "writing circle."

"We have circumstantial evidence that makes us highly suspicious,"
Looper said. "What we've got is smoke pouring from the house and a
high suspicion of fire."

The signatures were gathered by employees of Democracy Direct, the
main signature-gathering firm for conservative causes in the state.
Tim Trickey, the head of the company, said his employees used carbon
paper with permission from Bradbury's office before Jan. 1.

"There is none of that practice in anything gathered after the first
of the year," he said.

Trickey said if dates were changed on signature sheets that was the
fault of the initiative circulator and was not noticed by his
company. He also denied using writing circles or other methods to
forge voter signatures on initiative petitions.

Trickey said that over the years he has turned in about 25 cases of
suspected forgery to Oregon authorities, but that none of those cases
resulted in a prosecution.

Among the initiatives sponsored by Sizemore, Walker and Mannix are
measures that would slash state tax revenues, remove seniority as a
factor in calculating public school teachers' salaries, limit
contingency fees collected by lawyers and impose mandatory minimum
sentences for some first-time drug offenses and property crimes.