Legislative Report - Interim Week 6/10
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The House and Senate Rules committees met during the interim days last week. House Rules met May 31 to hear from representatives of the Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy. Senate Rules met May 20 to consider various appointments.
Campaign Finance
A CFR workgroup called by Rep. Fahey began meeting via video conferencing June 3. The workgroup’s goals are to identify technical adjustments needed to ensure successful implementation of HB 4024 (2024), recommend legislative fixes for 2025, and consider broader policy improvements for future sessions. The workgroup includes most of the groups from business, labor and Honest Elections that negotiated on HB 4024. The LWVOR is represented by Norman Turrill.
The Interim Joint Emergency Board decided May 31 to fund the request of the Secretary of State for the work required to implement HB 4024 (2024). Included are 17 new staff positions and an overhaul of ORESTAR. The Elections division has a backlog of 750 election complaints.
Redistricting
The Oregon Court of Appeals decided March 27 in favor of People Not Politicians that IP 14 does not include two subjects. Our Oregon has now requested a review of the Court of Appeals decision by the Oregon Supreme Court. Their purpose seems to be further delay of redistricting reform.
People Not Politicians previously announced that it is pausing the initiative signature campaign for IP 14. It has now refiled an initiative for the 2028 general election.
Websites, public records, and geospatial information
By Rebecca Gladstone
Several governance groups covered in this LR section have been active since the 2024 short session ended.
May 2024 EPAB (Electronic Portal Advisory Board) news: EPAB meets quarterly to oversee state agency websites. The League is represented in the Public Member position, with Rebecca Gladstone appointed by Governor Brown in 2019.Watch for the upcoming state Elections website redesign, featuring ORVIS, the new Voter Registration system, early in 2025! ORESTAR updates are expected to follow soon after.
The Oregon Newsroom, the updated state “Newsroom 2.0” website has launched with category and agency menus, and current articles.
The ORMaps Project, Tax Districting Work Group through the Department of Revenue met on May 22nd. Significantly, we were referred to the Oregon GeoHub, “Oregon’s Authoritative Geospatial Repository” because our LWVOR They Represent You website efforts begun in 2013 may again hold promise. This group convened in 2022, inviting LWV to work with the policy group to advocate for elections’ districts (Becky Gladstone) and the technical group to improve the data organization and access for our VOTE411 work (Peggy Bengry).
SB 417 Public Records Work Group will reconvene soon to prepare for the 2025 session. Technical discussions stalled during the 2024 session around filling public records requests, setting fees, coordinating between government entities, and prioritizing work with limited budgets. The recent unprecedented volume of public records requests seen in our elections offices was addressed in earlier Legislative Reports.
The Oregon Transparency Website update (report) is complete, as presented to the Joint Legislative Committee on Information Management and Technology on May 30.
The State AI Advisory Council will meet next on June 11.
