Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1911-06-13

|
spect to each petitioner.
"The auditor of the city of Port
land shall accept for filing any petit
tion for the initiative or for the ref
erendum, subject to the verification
of the number and genuineness Of
/ the signatures and voting qualifica-
tions of the persons signing the same
| by reference to the registration books
in the Office of the county clerk of
Multnomah county, and If a sufficient
number of qualified voters be found
to have signed said petition, he shall
/ file the same within 10 days after
presentation thereof to him." Id.
| Sec. 5.
Legal voters of the city of Port
land are qualified to sign a petition
for the referendum or for the initia-
tive for any measure which he is en-
titled to vote upon. Any person
signing any name other than his'own
to a petition or knowingly signing
his name more than once for the
same measure at one election, or who
| is not at the tine of signing the
same legal voter of the city, or any
officer or other person un)lawfully
violating any of the provisions of
this ordinance, shall, upon conviction
thereof be punished by fine not eX-
ceeding five hundred dollars, or by
Imprisonment in the city Jail not ex-
ceeding six months, or by both such
fine and Imprisonment, in the discre-
tion of the municipal court" Id.
Sec. IL.
In order to vote at an election held
under the Portland charter, a person
must have been resident of that
city for six months and of the ward
or precinct, in which he offers to
vote, for 80 days next preceding such
election and must also possess the
qualifications of legal voter of this
state. Special Laws, Or. 1903 p. 13,
Sec. q. The qualifications thus add
ed are that he must be a male citi-
zen 21 or more years old and native
born, or if of foreign birth that he
has declared his intention to become
a citizen of the United States, con-
formable to the naturalization laws
thereof, one year preceding such
election; is not idiotic or insane; has
not been convicted of a felony; and
is not soldier in the army or a sea-
man in the navy of the United States
Const. Or. Art. Secs 2, and 5.
1t will be remembered that the or
ganic act declares that not more than
10 per cent of the legal voters
shall be required to propose an ini-
tiative measure, while the ordinance
of Portland directs the auditor of
that city, upon receiving an initiative
petition, to verify the number and
genuineness Of the signatures there
on, and to ascertain the qualifica-
tions of the petitioners as electors,
by referring to the registration
books, and if a sufficient number of
qualified voters" have signed the pc
tition 1t shall be filed. Registered |
electors are thus recognized as quail |
led voters and only such as are COM
petent petitioners to initiate munich
pal measures The comparison of the
handwriting of a petitioner with his
Signature on the registration books,
which the ordinance demands of the |
auditor, was evidently designed to
prevent forgery of names by persons
who pretended to circulate initiative
ested parties. Such regulation nee
essarily tends to prevent fraud in Sc
curing petitioners, but, in our opin-
ion, the qualification of registration
is an unwarranted restriction of the
right to exercise the initiative pow
er guaranteed by the constitution to
legal voters.
Participation in the initiative of
measures to be submitted to voters
for ther approval or reputation is
not an election wherein any choice is
required to be made, but an initiative
petition affords evidence of a desire
on the part of few persons that the
expediency of proposed law may be
determined at the polls pursuant to
notice thereof. No great prerogative
of the people is violated by the or
ganic act in prescribing a small per-
centage of legal voters as sufficient to
inaugurate a proposed law. The in
ception of enactments having been
delegated by the fundamental law to
legal voters, the authority thus con-
ferred is so closely allied to an cleo
tion however, that the privilege of
signing an initiative petition cannot
be abridged by any legislation that
would amount to a deprivation of the
right, White V. Commissioners, 13
Or. 317,
In Roesch V. Henry "a Or. 29O, it
was held that the phrases illegal vot-
ers" and registered voters" were
synonymous and that no qualified
elector was a competent petitioner
for local option election unless his
signature appeared on the registra-
ton books of the county of which he
was a resident. In that case the To-
cal option law had been enacted in
the entire state pursuant to initiative
petitions of legal voters" (Const. Or.
Art. 4, Sec y but the statute could
be enforced in a county or subdi-
vision thereof or a precinct therein
by petitions signed by registered
voters" L. o. L. Sec. 1920 The To-
cal option law thus put into opera
tion was an entire statute previously
adopted. No measure was proposed
by the petitioners as an act formulat-
ed by them They undertook to Sc
cure the application of the law to
a particular territory. They were
powerless to propose any change of
the provisions of the statute which
as an entire enactment could have
been adopted or rejected in desig-
mated district and such being the
case, it was ruled, in effect, that lin
itation of the petitioners to "regis-
tered voters" was not violative of
Sec. of Article 4 of the constitu-
ton. In the case at bar, however.