KTVZ 21 News - Central Oregon
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Westlund wooing petition signers online
Vows to pull names of primary voters

February 18, 2005
By Barney Lerten

Oregon's only independent governor, Julius Meier, was elected in 1930, long before the Internet helped equalize the playing field.

Pioneering travelers often have to create their own trails as they go, and so it is with newly minted independent gubernatorial candidate state Sen. Ben Westlund. He finds himself having to not only fund-raise and explain his positions, but navigate a rarely used and recently revised petition-signature path to the ballot. Westlund needs to gather just over 18,000 valid voter signatures for submission to the secretary of state by the end of August to make the November general election ballot. It’s a variation aimed at ensuring serious candidates share ballot space with those major-party nominees who make it through the primary election process. But a new state law means the state Elections Division must invalidate signatures submitted by an independent candidate of those registered Democrats or Republicans who sign Westlund’s petition but also voted in the latest party primary. That’s a befuddling situation for a maverick politician who has drawn support over the years from members of both parties (such as the “Dems for Ben” group in his Senate campaign).

So the word went out Friday from Westlund, to Republicans and Democrats alike: Don’t sweat it, just sign the petition to show your support – and we’ll pull your name before submission time, if you turn up on the rolls of those who vote in May.

“I am encouraging all Oregonians who just aren’t satisfied to declare their independence and sign my petition,” Westlund said, three days after dropping his GOP affiliation and re-registering as an independent voter, as well as candidate for governor.

The petition-signature confusion could be costly to Westlund, in more ways than one. But as the candidate’s own Website (http://www.westlundforgovernor.com/) tells signature gatherers: “Democrats and Republicans can sign the petition. If they later vote in the primary election, their signature will not count toward the total … but if they’re supportive of Ben, get their signature anyway,” for the political value a higher tally will show, even unofficially.

Already, Westlund campaign’s said more than 100 volunteers have registered to help gather signatures. Petition sheets are available on the Website, or by calling the campaign at 382-8481.

Campaign Manager Stacey Dycus said, “We are not going to limit the free speech of voters who may or may not participate in a party primary by preventing them from signing now.”

“It’s customary for a campaign to verify signatures before submission,” Dycus said. “We will just have one more thing to check.”