PETITION SIGNATURES GATHERED BY NON-VOTERS REMAIN VALID

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Signatures on initiative petitions gathered illegally
by non-registered voters remain valid, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled
Wednesday.

The case involves an initiative petition drive that put a cigarette tax
increase on the ballot in 1996. The measure passed.

A Salem tobacco company lobbyist, Mark Nelson, challenged the signature
gathering. He produced evidence that some of the petitioners were not
Oregon registered voters, a violation of Oregon law.

Nelson argued that the practice amounted to voter fraud and the signatures
collected by non-registered voters should be nullified.

He acknowledged that no law allows for signatures to be invalidated in such
cases but contended authorities ought to have a common-law remedy to
prevent voters from being defrauded.

But the Court of Appeals said Nelson assumed that the "collection of
signatures by individuals not registered to vote amounts to fraud."

There is no evidence that petitioners "falsely represented themselves to be
registered Oregon voters or as to how anyone was injured as a result," the
appeals court said.

Nelson also contended that the petitioners' verifications that they
gathered the signatures should have been rejected because they weren't
registered voters.

But the court said petitions verified by a circulator who isn't a
registered voter "strictly speaking contain no falsehood" as long the
circulators believed the signatures were from qualified Oregon voters.

Oregon was flooded with initiative petition carriers in 1996, many of them
paid, and 16 measures made it onto the November ballot.

The Court of Appeals ruling upheld a decision by Marion County Judge Albin
Norlbad Jr., who said petition signatures are to be counted even if the
circulators gathering them are not legally qualified.

He said in a similar case that the law is meant to punish only unqualified
circulators, not the voters who sign the petitions.

Checked-by: Richard Lake