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• Redistricting/Prison Gerrymandering

• Broadband, Vote-by-mail, Privacy

• Elections

Redistricting/Prison Gerrymandering

HB 2250 will be heard in House Rules 3/19. The federal Census Bureau unfortunately counts prisoners where they are incarcerated rather than where they reside. This inflates the population counts where prisons are located and deflates the population counts for prisoners’ residence districts. Therefore, the representation of these districts and jurisdictions is skewed. HB 2250 corrects this injustice by requiring that the Department of Corrections determine prisoner residence addresses, as best that it can, and give the addresses to Portland State University Population Research Center. The Center will then correct the population counts that it receives from the Census Bureau and provide the corrected counts to the Legislature, the Secretary of State, or the various other jurisdictions that perform redistricting.

Broadband, Vote-by-mail, Privacy

By Becky Gladstone

HB 3148: had a public hearing to extend broadband funding. We support equitable statewide broadband as a fundamental need, signing group letters for HB 3148 (2025) and HB 3201 Enrolled (2023).

HB 3474: League testimony in support was filed after the public hearing for this bill calling for the SoS to study the impact of USPS changes to Oregon’s vote-by-mail system. We are watching three other bills presented in this public hearing, along with HB 3588 below, and another calling for a Secretary of State (SoS) study. 

HB 3588: has a public hearing March 17, for another SoS USPS study, on the effect of requiring a physical address for business registrations in Oregon. This could relate to HB 3474, calling for a SoS study on USPS changes affecting Oregon’s vote-by-mail system.

SB 470-1: anticipated from the public hearing discussion, the -1 amendment passed a work session unanimously. League testimony was in support of the original bill to protect lodgers’ privacy from illicitly taken videos.

HB 2341: to add veterans’ email addresses to shared information, had a Senate side public hearing after passing a House floor vote with 58 in favor. See League testimony. 

We are watching

HB 2851 replaces “fiber-optic cable network” with “terrestrial-based cable or wire communication facility” in ORS 166.122-128, defining critical infrastructures. Defining broadband, per se, as a critical infrastructure, places it for protection with gas and rail lines and the power grid, along with data centers, dams, bridges, roads, airports, and marinas. We have further recommended protecting our elections’ systems as a critical infrastructure. LWVOR hesitation to support HB 2851, for broadband, and the earlier HB 2772 Enrolled (2023), which defined the crime of domestic terrorism, is based on consistent testimony for both, fearing vaguely defined overreach guardrails in applying punitive action for “riot, disorderly conduct, harassment and related offenses“, defined in ORS 166. We reported the lack of a cyber warfare definition noted in the JLCIMT hearing video, Feb 28 2025, on Cyber warfare and the Pacific NW power grid. The concern is urgent to protect our critical infrastructures and our free speech and civil liberties.

SB 599 prohibits landlords from asking about, disclosing, or discriminating based on immigration status. The -4 version passed a work session with one dissenting vote. 

These three elections bills were presented together in House Rules on March 12: 

• HB 2435 requires the Secretary of State to publish a monthly voter registrations statistical report for each Oregon county.

• HB 3468 prohibits a county clerk from using certain information provided by ODOT or OHA to update any information for those already registered to vote.

• HB 3470 requires the Secretary of State to verify voter registration information received from ODOT and OHA.

Elections

By Barbara Klein

LWVOR had been active in working on the original bill (HB 3166) related to Open Primaries, somewhat based on the Alaska model. An amendment is now proposed, which contains points we have historically not supported (specifically a top-two election system). The amended bill HB 3166-2 would require a unified primary ballot for partisan and nonpartisan offices regardless of political party affiliation, and advancing only the top two vote getters to a winner-take-all style ballot during the general election. The League strongly supports the portion of the bill calling for open (or “unified”) primaries. HB 3166 is scheduled for a hearing on March 19th. 

Interested in reading additional reports?  Please see our Climate Emergency, Natural Resources, and Social Policy report sections.