Our Voice at Oregon’s 2024 Legislature: A Big Session for Democracy

Once again, we joined forces in common cause to watchdog and advocate at the Oregon legislature with a focus on defending and strengthening democracy.

Building on years of work, Common Cause Oregon partnered with Honest Elections Oregon to negotiate back a deeply flawed proposal on campaign finance reform and turn it into a historic bill worth supporting – making it the first time in Oregon history that legislators ever voted to limit campaign contributions. Common Cause also raised our collective voice to help win passage of a half dozen other pro-democracy measures.

OUR TOP PRIORITIES

HB 4024 – Campaign Finance Reform – PASSED

Enacts limits on campaign contributions, improves reporting of the true-original source of funds spent independently of candidates, and strengthens enforcement.

SB 1571 – Artificial Intelligence Deepfake Campaign Ads – PASSED 

Requires disclosure of A.I. generated manipulation in campaign ads used to deceive voters.

SB 1533 – Voter Pamphlet Translation – PASSED  

Expands the number of languages to which the state voters’ pamphlet is translated, so voters can access ballot information in a language with which they’re most comfortable.

HB 4019 – State Electors Count – PASSED 

Aligns Oregon’s process for casting its Electoral College votes with new requirements set out in the 2022 federal Electoral Count Reform Act, safeguarding against attempts to organize false electors. This involves clarifying who has authority to approve Oregon’s Electoral College (Oregon’s Governor and/or Secretary of State), creating a security measure, and aligning Oregon’s timeline to the federal timeline.

SB 1502A – School Board Transparency – PASSED 

Requires school boards to live stream meetings and post recording online.

SB 5701 – Elections Funding – PASSED 

Budget requests for election administration, including for limited-duration public records staff during peak election time, to ensure Oregon election administration remains strong in the face of unprecedented pressures.

SB 1589 – Bad Voting Bill    

We opposed this bill to overturn Oregon’s voting best practices. The bill never made it out of committee, but is worth noting. It would have ended Vote-By-Mail, making in-person voting the default and adding new Voter ID requirements; for absentee or overseas military ballots that are mailed, it would have removed protections that ballots are postage paid and will count if postmarked by election day.

SB 1577 – Automatic Voter Registration Bill Needing More Work

We would have liked to be able to support this well-intended bill to expand Oregon’s AVR program to include public colleges. But since Oregon does not currently have the systems in place to do this in a secure and effective manner, we worked to stop it from moving forward at this time.

SYMBOLIC MEMORIALS HONORING DEMOCRACY HEROES 

SCR 203 – Memorial: Alice Bartelt – PASSED  

Honors life & memory of Alice Bartelt, a League of Women Voters leader and Common Cause member.

SCR 204 – Memorial: Bill Bradbury – PASSED 

Honors life & memory of Bill Bradbury, who, as Oregon Secretary of State, helped introduce Vote-by-Mail and establish greater campaign finance transparency.

SCR 211 – Memorial: Steve Druckenmiller – PASSED 

Honors life & memory of Steve Druckenmiller, longtime County Election Clerk who championed VBM and other good election practice.

SCR 212 – Memorial: Clifford Trow – PASSED 

Honors life & memory of Clifford Trow, former OSU professor, Oregon legislator, and long time Common Cause Oregon supporter.

OTHER DEMOCRACY BILLS

SB 1538 – Election Law Updates – PASSED

The Election Division’s latest small technical fixes to election law.

HB 4020 – Training for Notaries – PASSED

Requires training for notaries to reduce errors.

HB 4026 – Placeholder on Voter Access – PASSED

Amended to stop voters from overturning local land use decisions by ballot measure after public land use process.

HB 4031 – Placeholder on Public Records – PASSED

Amended to keep certain tax records private. 

HB 4117 – Public Meetings Law Guidance – PASSED

Authorizes the Oregon Government Ethics Commission (OGEC) to give guidance on application of public meetings law, fixing a drafting error in a bill passed last session that expanded OGEC’s enforcement power.

HB 4153 – Artificial Intelligence Task Force – PASSED

Establishes a legislative task force to identify terms and definitions related to A.I. that may be used for legislation.

SB 1541 – Circuit Court Judges – PASSED

Increases number of circuit court judges.

SB 1540 – Placeholder on Public Records

Calls for a study on public records and serves as a placeholder that legislators could later amend, if they want to pass something more specific on this issue.

HB 4027 – Placeholder on Ethics

Calls for a study on government ethics and serves as a placeholder that legislators could later amend, if they want to pass something more specific on this issue.

HB 4021 – U.S. Senator Replacement

Requires Governor to appoint a temporary U.S. Senator until next special election, if/when Oregon loses a U.S. Senator between elections.

HB 4030 – Placeholder on Public Meetings

Calls for a study on public meetings law and serves as a placeholder that legislators could later amend, if they want to pass something more specific on this issue.

HB 4032 – How Judicial Candidates Appear on Ballot

Ends the practice of printing “incumbent” next to the names of incumbent judicial candidates on the ballot.

HB 4041 – Equity Grant Program

Updates and provides further funds for existing equity grant program.

HB 4159 – Newcomer Humanitarian Investment Pilot

Requires the Office of Immigrant & Refugee Advancement to contract with entities to provide short-term case management to new citizens. 

HB 4166 – Rules for Drafting Ballot Titles

Prescribes the method for creating a ballot title and an explanatory statement for any amendment to the Oregon Constitution or statutory Act that passes both houses of the Legislative Assembly during the 2024 session and that is referred to the people by the Legislative Assembly.

HJR 202 – Quorum vs. Simple Majority

Refers a measure to voters to change the requirement for the legislature to conduct business from a two-thirds quorum to a simple majority.