How are government leaders elected?
Here’s how elections will change for the offices covered by the Reform Act: US Senator, Representative in Congress, Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Treasurer, Commissioner of Labor and Industries, Oregon Senator, Oregon Representative, and partisan offices at lower levels of government.
Today . . .
Major party voters (Democratic, Republican) nominate their candidates through publicly funded, publicly administered primaries.
Minor party voters and candidates (i.e., Independent, Libertarian, Working Families, Pacific Green, Constitution, Progressive) are excluded from public primaries. Minor parties nominate their candidates via nominating conventions or other methods, without public funding.
Major and minor party nominees automatically receive a spot on the general election ballot.
Non-affiliated voters and candidates are excluded from public primaries. Non-affiliated candidates must gather a large number of petition signatures or hold an assembly of electors to make the general election ballot, without public funding.
How are candidates nominated for the general election ballot?
With IP-19 reform . . .
All candidates, regardless of party affiliation or non affiliation, compete together on the same public primary ballot.
All registered voters are allowed to vote in all candidate primaries, regardless of their party affiliation or non-affiliation. They may choose any candidate for any office on their primary ballot, or write in a candidate for any office.
Party affiliation will no longer determine who can run, who can vote, and who voters can choose in primaries.
The top 5 vote-earners in each primary race advance to the general election ballot.
There is no restriction on the number of nominees associated with a particular party. There is also no guarantee that a party’s candidate(s) will make the general election ballot.
Today . . .
Major party candidates only: Democrats on the Democratic Party ballot and Republicans on the Republican party ballot.
Who is on the publicly funded primary ballot?
With IP-19 reform . . .
All candidates, whether affiliated with a party or unaffiliated.
Who can vote on that ballot?
Today . . .
Members of major parties only.
Major parties can choose to allow non-affiliated voters to vote in their primaries, but they almost never do so and the process for the non-affiliated voters is cumbersome and time-consuming.
With IP-19 reform . . .
All registered voters, whether affiliated with a party or unaffiliated.
How many candidates advance to the general election?
Today . . .
One nominee from each party (major or minor), when a party makes a nomination. Multiple parties may nominate the same candidate. Any non-affiliated candidate who meets signature-gathering or assembly of electors requirements.
With IP-19 reform . . .
Five. If fewer than five candidates run for an office, all candidates advance to the general election. A candidate must garner at least 0.5% of the vote in the primary race to be nominated to the general election ballot.
Today . . .
All candidates compete on the same general election ballot.
Voters are free to choose any candidate on their ballot. They can choose one candidate only per office.
The candidate with the most votes wins office. Often, candidates win office without a majority of votes.
How is the general election winner decided?
With IP-19 reform . . .
All candidates compete on the same general election ballot.
Voters are free to choose any candidate on their ballot, and they are allowed to rank or score the candidates in order of their preferences.
If a candidate earns at least 50% of the vote, the candidate wins. Otherwise, rankings or scores are tabulated using an automatic run-off method that ensures the winner enjoys majority support and does not require a subsequent runoff election.
A Simpler Way to Elect Our Leaders
With the Reform Act, today’s complicated rules favoring certain voters and candidates over others are swept away. All voters and all candidates will be treated the same. Party affiliation will no longer determine if you’re in or out.
The Act creates a unified primary for all candidates and all voters. Eliminated are the three unequal paths to nominating candidates for the general election that we have today - one path for major parties, one for minor parties, and one for non-affiliated candidates.
All candidates will compete together on the same primary ballot. A single primary ballot for each precinct, not three - one for each major party and one for everybody else. Free, open, head-to-head competition.
Voters are given freedom to choose any candidate on their primary ballot. Gone are restrictions that voters can vote only for candidates from their party.
Filing requirements for candidates are simplified and made applicable to all candidates for an office. Not the three, unequal filing requirements that we have today, one for major party candidates, one for minor party candidates, and one for non-affiliated candidates. Same rules of the road for all.
The top 5 candidates advance from the primary to the general election, regardless of party affiliation. Voters decide who makes the ballot, not some arbitrary one-per-party rule.
Voters are given freedom to rank or score the candidates in general elections --assigning level of preferences to the candidate they like most, or those they like least. The requirement that voters choose only one candidate in the general election ends.
No candidate is allowed to present political party labels on the ballot next to his or her name, unless that party has officially deemed the candidate acceptable or has been endorsed by the party. No candidate can claim the mantle of a political party on the ballot, unless that party approves.
Why move the primary dates?
The Reform Act moves Oregon’s primary for President of the United States from the third Tuesday in May to the second Tuesday in March, the same date already used by Washington and Idaho. Oregon’s May primary is one of the last Presidential primaries in the USA, and the Act will create a “Pacific Northwest Super Tuesday” that attracts national attention to our regional and state issues.
Importantly, the Act moves Oregon’s primary for state and local offices from May (one of the earliest such primaries in the USA for state and local offices) to the first Tuesday in August, the same date already used by Washington. The shorter campaign season will be a relief to voters - and to candidates. Without this change, no one can become a candidate for public office in Oregon after the first week of March of the election year, as election officials need about 60 days advance notice of who will be a candidate before the primary is held. This benefits career politicians who plan ahead about upcoming elections, but shuts out regular folks who become interested (or incensed) about public issues and wish to run for office quickly. The Act will allow anyone to file to run in the primary election until early June of the election year.