Opinion ID: 835077
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Modified Caption

Text: As noted, the modified caption in the Attorney General's certified ballot title provides: Amends Constitution: Prohibits laws restricting count of registered voters' signatures to determine initiative/referendum qualification for ballot Petitioner asserts that the Attorney General's use of the phrase laws restricting count (petitioner actually misquotes the phrase as law restricting count) inappropriately focuses on counting votes, when the true subject of the proposed measure reaches beyond counting to touch a variety of statutes and rules that are designed to control the initiative and referendum process as a whole, with the result (invalidating signatures) being a consequence of violations of certain of those statutes and rules. Petitioner is correct. This court did state in its earlier opinion that the proposed measure would remove some (not all) of the impediments to counting signatures, but specifically noted that the manner in which that would be accomplished was that some of the processes by which signatures presently are vettedprocesses that can prevent the counting of certain individual signaturesare to be set aside and    the legislature is forbidden to enact substitutes for them. The Attorney General's caption fails to identify this subject, which is at the heart of the measure. Caruthers, 347 Or. at 668, 227 P.3d 723. As further clarification, the opinion included examples of statutes and rules that would be affected by enactment of the proposed measure. Id. at 665, 227 P.3d 723. Most such statutes and rules focus on practices and procedures that the legislature and the Secretary of State have considered desirable to ensure the legitimacy of the signature-gathering process and to regulate the activities of those who gather the signatures; few (if any) have as their principal focus or purpose the disqualification of signatures. Thus, as our previous opinion indicated (and as petitioner now argues), the subject of the proposed measure was the elimination of many existing controls on the present signature collection and verification process, together with a prohibition on creating substitutes for those controls. The Attorney General's caption still does not capture that subject. It must. In failing to do so, the caption does not substantially comply with ORS 250.035(2)(a) (requiring that a certified ballot title contain a caption that reasonably identifies the subject matter of the    measure). The ballot title therefore must be referred to the Attorney General for modification. See ORS 250.085(8) (ballot title failing to comply substantially with requirements of ORS 250.035 shall be referred to Attorney General for modification). We recognize that the ballot title modification process must be carried out very expeditiouslya modified ballot title must be certified by the Attorney General within five  business days of referral from this court, ORS 250.085(9)and we do not wish to hide the ball. We therefore suggest (without in any sense requiring it) that a caption phrased in some way akin to the following meets the requirements of ORS 250.035(2)(a): Amends Constitution: Prohibits disqualification of initiative/referendum signatures even when obtained in violation of election laws