Opinion ID: 3036329
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Effect Of Measure 26 On The Cost of

Text: Signature Gathering in Oregon Arno averred that Measure 26 would increase the cost of signature collection by 35-45 percent. Taylor similarly averred Measure 26 would increase the cost of gathering signatures in Oregon. Yet both Arno and Taylor based their predictions on the misapprehended fact that Measure 26 converted circulators from independent contractors into employees, resulting in increased payroll costs. As noted above, Oregon law recognizes petition circulators as employees, rather than independent contractors, notwithstanding Measure 26. Further, Arno and Taylor had little, if any, experience in initiative-petition circulation in Oregon before Measure 26 was passed. Arno testified he had worked on one initiative campaign in Oregon “around 1992,” but that campaign “ended up folding prior to turning in signatures.” Arno had not worked on any other initiative campaigns in Oregon. Similarly, Taylor testified that apart from an unrelated petition (Referendum Petition 401 placed on the November 2004 ballot), he had never worked on any initiative campaigns in Oregon before or after Measure 26 was passed. Thus, as noted by the district court, neither Arno nor Taylor could “offer a reli1888 PRETE v. BRADBURY able comparison on the added costs, if any, imposed by Measure 26.” Plaintiffs submitted several other affidavits which they contend support their claim that Measure 26 poses a severe burden by increasing costs. Jason Williams (one of the plaintiffs) averred he did not circulate an initiative petition “due in large part to the fact that the cost of circulating the petition, using paid signature gatherers, has increased significantly.” Yet Williams does not aver that Measure 26 is responsible for any such price increase. R. Russell Walker, chief petitioner for an unrelated initiative (initiative petition 59), averred that he did not circulate that petition “due in large part to the fact that the cost of circulating the petition, using paid signature gatherers, has increased significantly.” Similarly, he makes no averment that Measure 26 is to blame. The district court ultimately concluded “Measure 26 imposes no appreciable burden in terms of costs for an initiative or referendum campaign.”21 Implicit in this finding is the 21 In making that finding, the district court also looked to an affidavit by Ted Blaszak of Democracy Resources of Oregon, Inc., a signature gathering firm. The Blaszak affidavit was submitted by intervenor-defendants. Blaszak had run the signature gathering campaign for Measure 26, during which the petition circulators were paid by the hour, not per-signature. Blaszak averred that he had worked on about ten other initiative campaigns in Oregon, and “the requirement to pay employees by the hour rather than by the signature has not significantly increased my costs or decreased productivity.” As noted in Section I, although the district court erred in granting intervenor-defendants’ motion to intervene, that error was harmless. The Blaszak affidavit supports defendant’s position that Measure 26 does not increase the costs of initiative petition circulation, yet the district court largely found that plaintiffs, through their own offer of proof, did not prove that Measure 26 would impose such a burden. According to its amended opinion and order, the district court did not rely upon any other evidence submitted by intervenor-defendants. Thus, the district court’s consideration of the Blaszak affidavit does not make it more probable than not that the district court’s error in granting intervention tainted the verdict. Furthermore, there is no evidence that defendant would not have obtained and submitted the Blaszak affidavit if Nesbitt and the Oregon AFL-CIO had not intervened. PRETE v. BRADBURY 1889 conclusion that Measure 26 does not substantially increase the cost of initiative-petition circulation. This finding is supported by the record and is not clearly erroneous. 3. The Effect of Measure 26 On The Invalidity Rate of Signatures Gathered for Initiatives in Oregon Arno averred he “noticed a significant decrease in the number of valid signatures collected by signature gatherers since Measure 26 became law.” Taylor similarly averred he “discovered a disproportionate number of signatures to be invalid [in Oregon], as opposed to the validity rates I am encountering in Washington and Ohio [which states do not prohibit payment by signature].” Yet Taylor does not attribute the higher invalidity rate to Measure 26 or suggest any reason for the higher invalidity rate. He stated, however, that signature gatherers paid by the hour “have more of an incentive to defraud me [compared to signature gatherers paid per signature] because they know that regardless of whether I think the signatures are valid, the signature gatherer must still be paid an hourly wage.” As the district court noted, however, both Arno and Taylor testified they had limited to no experience in initiative and referendum processes in Oregon. Thus, their assertions that paying petition circulators by the hour, instead of per signature, results in higher signature invalidity rates carry little weight. Both Williams and Walker also averred Oregon had a higher signature invalidity rate post-Measure 26. Yet neither affiant attributed the higher invalidity rate directly to Measure 26. In contrast, defendant submitted an affidavit from Richard J. Ellis, Ph.D., a political science professor at Willamette University in Oregon. Ellis averred that “the available evidence— though limited—suggests that circulators paid by the hour also have a higher validity rate than those paid by the signature.” For example, in Oregon’s 2002 election year, Measure 1890 PRETE v. BRADBURY 26 (which used only circulators paid by the hour) had a signature validity rate of 73.43 percent, higher than the ten other initiative petitions submitted for that election. Ellis also states the overall signature validity rates have dropped in Oregon not because of Measure 26, but because a March 2000 directive by the Oregon Elections Division instructed county clerks (who confirm the validity of signatures on petitions) not to count initiative signatures by “inactive voters” (i.e., voters who have registered but have not voted in a certain number of past elections). Further, Referendum Petition 401, which was qualified for the February 2004 Oregon ballot, after the passage of Measure 26, had a signature validity rate of 84.55 percent. Arno, Taylor, and Williams were involved in the circulation and gathering of signatures for Referendum Petition 401. The high validity rate of the collection of signatures for Referendum Petition 401, conducted after the adoption of Measure 26, weighs against plaintiffs’ claim. The record, therefore, supports the district court’s conclusion that Measure 26 results in higher validity rates for signature collection, rather than lower validity rates. Therefore, the district court’s finding is not clearly erroneous. In sum, plaintiffs’ presentation of proof falls short here. The district court did not clearly err in finding that Measure 26 did not decrease the pool of petition circulators in Oregon; did not increase the costs of signature gathering; and did not result in a higher invalidity rate of signatures gathered for initiatives. We next review the district court’s determination that Measure 26 creates only a “lesser burden” on plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights. Because this question relates to a constitutional fact (i.e., what constitutes a “severe burden” or a “lesser burden”), we review the district court’s determination de novo. See Planned Parenthood, 290 F.3d at 1070. PRETE v. BRADBURY 1891 As noted supra, the district court did not clearly err in finding plaintiffs failed to prove Measure 26 resulted in any burden on their First Amendment rights. Unlike Meyer, plaintiffs did not prove that Measure 26 limited “the number of voices who will convey [plaintiffs’] message and the hours they can speak”; that Measure 26 “limits the size of the audience [plaintiffs’] can reach”; or that Measure 26 makes it “less likely that [plaintiffs] will garner the number of signatures necessary to place the matter on the ballot, thus limiting their ability to make the matter the focus of statewide discussion.” See Meyer, 486 U.S. at 423-24. Moreover, unlike Buckley, plaintiffs did not prove that Measure 26 significantly limits the available pool of people willing to circulate petitions or constrains petition circulators’ “political thought and expression.” See Buckley, 525 U.S. at 194-96. Of course, from an economic perspective, eliminating one method of payment (but not every method, a la Meyer) for petition circulators could result in some barriers to entry in the signature procurement market. For a task like signature gathering, it is possible that paying per signature (i.e., a commission basis) can be more productive of signatures than paying an hourly wage. Whether Measure 26 creates such barriers to entry, however, is a question of historical fact reviewed for clear error.22 Here, the district court did not clearly err in finding plaintiffs failed to prove the existence of such barriers to entry or that, if present, they diminished petition circulators’ ability to garner the requisite number of signatures to qualify initiatives for the ballot. Absent proof that such barriers to entry existed and had the claimed result, we are not left with a “definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made” by the district court. See Sawyer v. Whitley, 505 U.S. 333, 346 n.14 (1992); SEC v. Rubera, 350 F.3d 1048, 1093 (9th Cir. 2003) (citing Easley v. Cromartie, 532 U.S. 234, 242 (2001)) 22 Whether the proven barriers, if any, constitute a severe or lesser burden is a question of constitutional fact reviewed de novo. See Planned Parenthood, 290 F.3d at 1070. 1892 PRETE v. BRADBURY (“Under the clearly erroneous standard, we defer to the lower court’s determination unless, based on the entire evidence, we are possessed of a ‘definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.’ ”).23 Moreover, even if such barriers to entry did arise, they would result in only a “lesser burden” under the First Amendment. Measure 26 is quite limited in its proscription, barring only payment of petition circulators on the basis of the number of signatures gathered. It does not prohibit adjusting salaries or paying bonuses according to validity rates or productivity, see Or. Admin. R. 165-014-0260, which could likely counter any barriers to entry. In the absence of proof that Measure 26 creates such barriers to entry or otherwise burdens their First Amendment rights, plaintiffs have established only that Measure 26 imposes “lesser burdens” upon the initiative process. Generally, the finding of a “lesser burden” triggers a “less exacting review” under which an “important regulatory interest[ ]” will support a finding that the measure is a “reasonable, nondiscriminatory restriction[ ].”24 See Bayless, 320 F.3d at 1007.25 23 “To be clearly erroneous, a decision must strike us as more than just maybe or probably wrong; it must . . . strike us as wrong with the force of a five-week-old, unrefrigerated dead fish.” Hayes v. Woodford, 301 F.3d 1054, 1067 n.8 (9th Cir. 2002) (citing Fisher v. Roe, 236 F.3d 906, 912 (9th Cir. 2001) (quoting Parts & Elec. Motors, Inc. v. Sterling Elec., Inc., 866 F.2d 228, 233 (7th Cir. 1988))). 24 “The ‘principal inquiry’ in determining whether a regulation is content-neutral or content-based ‘is whether the government has adopted the regulation because of agreement or disagreement with the message it conveys.’ ” Crawford v. Lungren, 96 F.3d 380, 384 (9th Cir. 1996) (quoting Turner Broadcasting Sys., Inc. v. FCC, 512 U.S. 622, 642 (1994)) (internal alterations omitted). “[L]aws that by their terms distinguish favored speech from disfavored speech on the basis of the ideas or views expressed are content-based.” Id. Here, Measure 26 does not regulate what can be said in an initiative or referendum petition, nor does it adopt or reject any particular subject that can be raised in a petition. It may be PRETE v. BRADBURY 1893