UPDATE: Judge Henry Kantor has rejected the Yes on 92 Campaign’s appeal to put a restraining order on the Secretary of State to prevent certification of the November 4 election. The Yes Campaign is currently discussing options following the judge’s decision.
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With only an 812 vote difference (out of 1.5 million cast) favoring the NO side in the Oregon GMO food labeling initiative a recount has gotten underway.
Monsanto and the Big Food opponents of Measure 92, the labeling initiative, are taking desperate measures to ensure the result doesn’t change. In at least four Oregon counties, the NO campaign attempted to place out-of-state election observers in the recount rooms as their representatives, according the Statesman Journal in Salem Oregon. The action is a violation of Oregon state law which allows only state electors, or Oregon residents, to have the role.
One of the out-of-state observers, from Virginia, is the director of state affairs for the powerful Grocery Manufacturer’s Association – a huge opponent of state GMO food labeling laws.
In one county, the representative of the NO campaign was found disrupting the attention of the counter and telling them how to do their job.
In the latest development, the YES campaign is joining with several Oregon voters in a lawsuit concerning the failure to count 4,600 ballots in Multnomah county. The ballots are not being counted because election officials have said the signatures on the ballot envelope don’t match the signature on file for the voter. Oregon state law does not require that the signatures match.
According to the YES campaign, there is no evidence of fraud for the 4,600 ballots – which coincidentally are from a county that heavily supported the YES vote. Some of the signatures differ due to illness or disability.
Christine Seals of Multnomah County, one of the eight named plaintiffs on the lawsuit, is typical of these voters. Christine is a quadriplegic who used to sign with a pen/pencil in her mouth for years, but recently began using a stamp as her legal signature. She has used the stamp to vote in previous elections and to her knowledge did not have a problem. She recently received a letter from the county Election Board indicating her signature did not match but did not respond because she assumed the letter was sent by mistake given her longstanding disability which she thought was well documented in the county elections office.
“I take my right to vote very seriously, and I think it is very wrong that elections officials are disenfranchising me in this election because they’ve suddenly decided not to accept my stamp,” Christine says. “That is why I am joining this lawsuit. I cast a valid ballot, and it should be counted.”
Another plaintiff, George Harris of Multnomah County, says his signature was altered as a result of stroke he suffered on April 8, 2014. He received a letter from the county Election Board indicating his ballot was being rejected but did not respond because he was undergoing rehabilitation at the time. Now elections officials are throwing out his valid vote.
A third plaintiff is Cameron Alderman, who moved to Portland from Mississippi a year ago. His ballot was initially delivered to the wrong apartment number but after jumping through many hoops he was able to submit his ballot on time. He never received any notice from the County Election Board that his ballot had been rejected, perhaps because it was again sent to the wrong address.
“When I didn’t get my ballot initially, I tried really hard to make sure my vote got counted,” Alderman says. “I don’t know why my vote is being rejected and I’m mad about it. The judge needs to order them to count my vote.”
“We have said from the beginning of the recount that all valid votes should be counted, but unfortunately that is not happening currently,” said Paige Richardson, a spokesperson for the Yes on Measure 92 campaign. “That is why we are filing this emergency lawsuit today, asking for a temporary restraining order halting the certification of the Measure 92 mandatory statewide hand recount until the votes of thousands of Oregon voters currently being unlawfully disenfranchised by elections officials are counted.”
