Oregon’s 2024 Legislative Session

Pending Democracy Bills

Oregon legislators have filed these bills – impacting democracy – for consideration during the state’s 2024 legislative session. For more information on any bill, you can click on the bill number and check out the legislature’s own information page for that bill.

SB 1502 – School Board Transparency – requires school boards to live stream meetings and post recording online.

SB 1533 – Voter Pamphlet Translation – 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.

SB 1538 – Election Law Updates – the Election Division’s latest small technical fixes to election law.

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.

SB 1541 – Circuit Court Judges – increases number of circuit court judges.

SB 1571 – Artificial Intelligence Deepfake Campaign Ads – requires disclosure of A.I. generated manipulation in campaign ads used to deceive voters.

SB 1577 – Automatic Voter Registration – expands Oregon’s AVR registration to include public colleges (but unfortunately, this is not yet possible in a completely secure and effective manner).

SB 1589 – Overturning Oregon’s Voting Best Practices – ends Vote-By-Mail, making in-person voting the default and adding new Voter ID requirements; for absentee or overseas military ballots that are mailed,  removes protections that ballots are postage paid and will count if postmarked by election day.

SCR 203 – Memorial: Alice Bartelt – honors life & memory of Alice Bartelt, a League of Women Voters leader and Common Cause member.

SCR 204 – Memorial: Bill Bradbury – honors life & memory of Bill Bradbury, who, as Oregon Secretary of State, helped introduce Vote-by-Mail and establish greater campaign finance transparency.

SCR 212 – Memorial: Clifford Trow – honors life & memory of Clif Trow, an OSU Corvallis professor and Oregon legislator, and a long time Common Cause member.

HB 4019 – State Electors Count – 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.

HB 4020 – Training for Notaries – requires training for notaries to reduce errors.

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 4024 – Placeholder on Campaign Finance Reform – calls for a study on money’s influence on voting and serves as a placeholder that legislators could later amend, if they want to pass something more specific on this issue.

HB 4026 – Placeholder on Voter Access – calls for a study on access to voting 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 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 4031 – Placeholder on Public Records – calls for a study on public records 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 4117 – Public Meetings Law Guidance – 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 – establishes a legislative task force to identify terms and definitions related to A.I. that may be used for legislation.

HB 4159 – Newcomer Humanitarian Investment Pilot – requires the Office of Immigrant & Refugee Advancement to contract with entities to provide short-term case management for new citizens.

HJR 202 – Quorum vs. Simple Majority – refers a measure to voters to change the requirement for the legislature to conduct business from a 2/3rds quorum to a simple majority.

BUDGET – Secretary of State Funding Requests – includes: adding 1 limited-duration staff person during peak election time to support county election offices with increased public records requests; a reclassification and raise for the Secretary of State’s Legislative Director position; and the digitization of microfilm public records.

LC 60 – Ranked Choice Voting Ballot Measure Title – determines the short caption that will serve as the ballot title for a 2024 measure on ranked choice voting, referred to the voters by the legislature.

LC 59 – Impeachment Ballot Measure Title – determines the short caption that will serve as the ballot title for a 2024 measure granting impeachment powers to the Oregon House of Representatives, referred to the voters by the legislature.

LC 58 – Public Officials Salary Commission Ballot Measure Title – determines the short caption that will serve as the ballot title for a 2024 measure for a salary commission on the salaries of public officials, referred to the voters by the legislature.