OREGON PASSES VOTE-BY-MAIL, MEDICAL MARIJUANA, ADOPTION MEASURES

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Oregon has become the first state in the nation to
retire the traditional polling place, passing a measure to conduct all its
elections exclusively by mail ballots.

Voters also passed measures that legalize marijuana for medical uses and
allow adoptees to see their original birth certificates.

The vote-by-mail proposal passed by a 57- to 43-percent margin, according
to election results tallied through Wednesday, but will not represent a
major change in the way Oregonians have voted in recent years.

Already, Oregon leads the nation in the percentage of votes cast by mail,
with nearly two-thirds of this election's votes cast by absentee ballot.

Even before it officially passed, a group of opponents challenged the
vote-by-mail measure on grounds that it would violate federal law requiring
presidential and congressional elections to take place on the same day.

Deborah Phillips, a spokeswoman for Voting Integrity Project Inc., based in
Arlington, Va., said the group's intent was to stop a voting method it
believes will lead to increased fraud and abuse.

``We believe that an all mail-in ballot is flat out dangerous,'' she said.
The new law ``eliminates the secret ballot and opens the door to possible
intimidation and vote tampering.''

Oregon also joined Washington state, Arizona, Nevada and Alaska in passing
a measure allowing the medical use of marijuana. California voters approved
such a measure in 1996.

In Washington, Associate Attorney General Raymond C. Fisher said today the
U.S. Justice Department would review each of the initiatives individually
and discuss them with local law enforcement before making any response to
them. In California, the federal government has mounted civil court actions
to close clinics dispensing marijuana under a similar initiative.

``Under the federal law, the use of marijuana remains a crime,'' Fisher
told a news conference at the Justice Department. ``Obviously, there are
people in a number of states who favor a medical exemption for it. Our
position is: Let's do research into it. Let's validate whether or not there
are legitimate uses of marijuana. But at the present time, it's a federal
crime and we intend to stand by it.''

Under Oregon's law, marijuana can only be prescribed by a doctor for a
limited number of illnesses, such as AIDS, multiple sclerosis, cancer and
glaucoma.

The measure passed in Oregon by a 55- to 45-percent margin.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected another marijuana-related measure that would
have increased penalties, with possible jail time, for possessing less than
an ounce of pot.

Also, Oregon became the first state Wednesday to see a public vote force
open its adoption records. Passing by a 55- to-45-percent margin, the
measure gives a copy of original birth certificates to an adult adoptee
upon request. Only Alaska and Kansas have similar laws, but those were
initiated in state legislatures.

In other votes, Oregonians rejecting a proposed ban on clearcut logging but
gave the go ahead to a host of other measures.

They earmarked 15 percent of lottery funds for parks and salmon
restoration, and they passed by a 4-1 margin an initiative that requires
giving property owners written notice of proposed zoning changes.

They also guaranteed the right of public employees to use payroll
deductions for political activities. Measure 62 was passed by a 2-1 margin
and runs counter to the ban on payroll deductions proposed in Measure 59.

Unions spent millions of dollars against that measure and their ad blitz
paid off. Measure 59 was trailing by 6 percentage points.

Measure 65, which would require the Legislature to review administrative
rules if petitioned to do so, was losing by about 6 percentage points.

Measure 54, which would authorize the state to back general obligation
bonds issued by school districts, held an edge of 10 percentage points. The
measure would also reduce interest costs to local school districts by
permitting them to get backing of state's credit rating to borrow.

Measure 55, which would allow the state to incur debt to support a prepaid
tuition program, continued to falter. The would allow students to pay
college tuition costs in advance under a plan backed by the state's credit.