Kate Brown: Silencing Democracy

The initiative process has a long and distinguished history in Oregon. Since 1902, citizens have used it to enact laws and change the Constitution when elected officials in the Legislature refused. Things like vote by mail, granting women the right to vote eight years ahead of the federal government, and enabling the recall of elected officials, all passed through initiative.

Unfortunately, Kate Brown’s policies as Secretary of State are preventing normal citizens from using the initiative process. Today, only well-heeled interest groups, unions or big corporations can afford to use the system.

KATE BROWN’S INITIATIVE SYSTEM – SILENCING DIRECT DEMOCRACY

• Kate Brown throws out 40-50 percent of signatures on petitions. The State of Washington discards about 15 percent of signatures.
• Tens of thousands of voter signatures are thrown out every election cycle by temporary elections workers who judge a signature to “not match” the one on a voter registration card.
• Each election cycle Brown throws away tens of thousands of signatures because those registered voters are considered ‘inactive,’ even though those signatures would be counted in Washington and other states with the initiative process.
• Kate Brown refuses to notify voters whose signatures are rejected.
• Kate Brown opens voters up to ID theft by allowing anyone to obtain copies of signature sheets. Such sheets include a voter’s name, address, and signature.
• There has not been a single measure placed on the Oregon ballot by volunteer circulators since 2006.
• Kate Brown received – and brags about – an “A” grade from the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, a partisan group funded by unions, which is actively working to restrict initiative rights.

Kate Brown’s record on the initiative process is so bad that even Ralph Nader, a longtime progressive activist, said this earlier this year that “Kate Brown is suffocating your democratic process.”

Listen below to what Ralph Nader had to say about Kate Brown:

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