Grassroots Democracy vs the Oregon Secretary of State

Dear Friend of Meo for Congress,

There is no possibility of getting the Candidate Statement on the Voter's Pamphlet by petition.

The Secretary of State's office called me just now. The Instructions for circulating the petition say, that no more than 5 sheets can be circulated stapled to a copy of the candidate's statement. They do not say that the petitions must be submitted with candidate statement copies stapled to them, in proof of the fact that no more than five sheets were circulated with a candidate's statement.

I submitted the petition sheets. 33 of them in Multnomah County. I did not, by including a copy of the candidate's statement stapled to each five sheets, demonstrate the fact that the sheets were circulated (actually, of course, it was never the case that more than one copy was ever circulated with a candidate's statement: I talked about the 'attached statement' with every signer and handed the signer the 'attached statement' to read) with no more than 5 sheets per copy of the candidate's statement.

All of my petitions have been ruled unacceptable. The Secretary of State's office has decided that the Instructions are to be interpreted in the sense that each five sheets must be attached to a copy of the candidate statement, to prove that no more than five sheets were circulated with such a copy.

There is no appeal. The 330 signatures are dismissed as unacceptable.

Also...

Dear Editor of a News Outlet,

My name is Michael Meo and I am the candidate of the Pacific Green Party, the Oregon Progressive Party, and the Pirate Party for the 3rd District US House of Representatives seat. Two of those three parties have ballot access, and I will be on the ballot in the general election in Novermber, as their co-nominee.

I do not have two thousand five hundred dollars for the Voter's Pamphlet fee. The Oregon Legislature allowed for candidates to collect 300 signatures in lieu of $2500 fee, subject to certain restrictions. You had to get permission from the Secretary of State to circulate the petitions, you had to attach the petition to a candidate statement (no more than 5 sheets per copy of the candidate statement), and the county had to certify that you had 300 (in the case of US Congress seats) valid signatures of registered voters in Oregon, before submitting the petitions in lieu of a fee.

So on Tuesday, yesterday, I submitted 33 sheets to the Multnomah County elections division. I had spoken with every voter who had signed, and gone through the candidate statement with them, holding the petition on a clipboard with the candidate statement.

For the Multnomah County Elections Division, my sheets appeared valid. They accepted them, found 308 legible signatures on them, 260 of which were valid signatures of currently registered voters.

Then the Secretary of State's office asked the Multnomah people whether there were staple holes on my petition pages. Some had them, but most did not. The Secretary of State's Elections Office, in the person of Steve Trout, then ruled that my signatures, gathered solely by me and my wife, with one and only one sheet attached to the clipboard as we showed and talked through each (3-page) candidate statement, were all of them unacceptable.

Not only that, but the permission I had been granted to gather signatures for that candidate statement was now rescinded, since there were not staple holes on the petition sheets. I have started to go through the entire process, which took me six weeks, all over again, this time with the certain knowledge that the Secretary of State's Office has its thumb on the scale against me.

I say this is a developing story, because as the Executive Director of the Portland Metro Chapter of the Pacific Green Party I will be convening a meeting at the Bipartisan Cafe, 7901 S.E. Stark Street, tomorrow (Thursday) night at 6:30 pm to evaluate the means we have to get me on the ballot, despite the low blow we have received.

I hope to see a reporter from your organization at that meeting to interview party officials, including our secretary, and to view documents validating what I am asserting.

Cordially yours,

Michael Meo