Initiative Power

The plaintiffs are asking a federal judge to order a new, independent review of all gathered signatures.

The chief petitioners are demanding a recount of the signatures.

As citizens have increasingly employed their powers to make or change law, state officials have used a variety of tactics to make doing so more difficult.

A fight over a controversial police funding measure could be headed to the court after the initiative fell 6,000 signatures short of making it onto the ballo...

The Portland City Elections office announced Tuesday that backers of the Enhanced Community Safety initiative did not submit enough valid signatures.

A ballot initiative that sought to direct 25 percent of Portland’s Clean Energy Fund toward hiring additional police officers failed to gather enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot. The Portland City Auditor’s Office, which houses Portland’s Elections Division, confirmed Tuesday afternoon that after sampling and verification, the number of qualified signatures for […]

Nearly 100 Portlanders file complaints of being misled or lied to over a ballot measure that would divert Portland’s climate funds toward hiring more police officers.

The proposed ballot measure will not go in front of city voters in November.

The initiative seeking to reroute 25% of Portland Clean Energy Fund tax revenues to hiring some 400 police officers has failed to qualify for the November ballot. The initiative previously failed to qualify in its first sample. It has now failed the second and final sample.

The complaint alleges that canvassers repeatedly failed to carry a copy of the ballot initiative’s complete text and falsely stated that the measure would hire mental health responders and 911 dispatchers.

Only one citizen petition is on track for the November ballot, a drop from previous election cycles.

Elections officials in Pierce County are contacting all voters ages 18 to 26 and asking them to update their signatures in an effort to head off challenges and make sure their votes are counted. Washington uses signature verification to make sure voters are who they say they are. But that

Critics of the state's initiative petition system say it gives too much say to the Portland region.

Montana's Supreme Court is allowing the signatures of inactive voters to count on petitions seeking to qualify constitutional initiatives for the November ballot, including one to protect abortion rights.

Oregonians will likely decide just four or possibly five ballot measures this fall as only a pair of citizen-led initiatives appear to have garnered enough signatures by Friday’s deadline.

Proponents of a school voucher-like system have failed to collect enough signatures to put a proposed measure on the November 2024 ballot.

Mainland Republicans are trying to roll back the rights of citizens to pursue statewide ballot initiatives but island Democrats have never allowed it either.

Democrats seek to make referring a new corporate tax measure to the ballot more difficult by changing the law on electronic signature gathering.

Senate Bill 761, which seeks to restrict a popular way by which Oregonians get initiatives on the ballot, would help legislators keep tight control over what becomes – and what stays law. Legislators should trust their voters and reject this bill.

Democratic lawmakers are moving to more tightly regulate electronic petitions, which are becoming more popular for initiative, recall and referendum campaigns in Oregon.

The ruling by a three-judge panel is the most authoritative opinion yet in a monthslong battle over how Secretary of State Bev Clarno handles ballot measures.