MARIJUANA, MAIL VOTING HEAD TO NOVEMBER ELECTION

(AP) -- Oregonians will vote this fall on legalizing medical use of
marijuana, allowing mail voting in all elections and barring government
payroll deduction to collect union dues for political purposes.

State elections officials also announced on Friday that the Oregon Citizens
Alliance failed to qualify an anti-abortion initiative for the November
ballot.

The OCA measure would have banned abortion in the second and third
trimester except to save the mother's life.

The failure is the second general election in which the group opposing
abortion and gay rights has failed to get an initiative on the ballot. OCA
Chairman Lon Mabon has said the organization's future is ion some doubt.

The secretary of state said the OCA petitions had only about 88,000 valid
signatures, with 97,000 needed to put the issue on the ballot.

Workers are about halfway through tallying and checking signatures on the
11 proposed initiative measures filed for the November general election.
The secretary of state's office has until next Friday to finish the job.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Sizemore succeeded in qualifying his
union dues proposal for the ballot. A similar initiative was defeated last
month in California.

Another proposal, to impose tougher sentences for property crimes, was
rated a tossup. The first signature check indicated it was very close to
qualifying, and a second check was ordered.

State Elections Director Colleen Sealock said if she was a supporter of the
property crime proposal, she would be "optimistic ... that they will qualify."

Signatures are checked by scientific sampling. Only if the first sampling
indicates a proposed initiative does not qualify for the ballot, a second
sampling is checked.

Measure supporters need 73,261 signatures of registered voters to put their
issues on the ballot. A proposed constitutional amendment requires 97,681
signatures to make the ballot.

The marijuana measure is similar to medical pot laws passed last year by
voters in California and Arizona.

Supporters say marijuana can relieve symptoms of cancer, glaucoma, AIDS,
multiple sclerosis and other illnesses. Police organizations have pledged
to fight the measure on grounds it will lead to wider drug use.

The measure, by coincidence, will join another one on the November ballot
that will decide whether to reinstate criminal penalties for possessing
small amounts of marijuana.

The 1997 Legislature passed that law, but those who want the law the way it
was -- no criminal penalties for possession of less than an ounce --
gathered enough signatures to put the issue to a vote.

Meantime, measures on vote-by-mail and adoption were declared qualified for
the ballot Friday.

Mail voting now is permitted in all elections but the biggest ones, the
primary and general elections. Legislators have refused to extend mail
voting to those elections.

The adoption measure would ensure that adopted people 21 and older could
obtain copies of their original birth certificates.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski