Will Oregon Candidates Stand Up for Democracy?

PORTLAND, Ore. Oct. 17, 2018 — As ballots go in the mail today across Oregon, voters are encouraged to use two tools — the Democracy2018.org questionnaire and the Democracyscorecard.org website — to see where state and federal candidates stand on democracy issues such as small dollar elections and the National Popular Vote compact. 

Common Cause Oregon launched the Democracy2018.org online questionnaire this election season to help voters make informed choices and get candidates on the record for reforms to be introduced next session. State candidates are invited to answer seven yes-or-no questions about small dollar elections, campaign contribution limits, automatic voter registration, election access, election integrity, nonpartisan redistricting and the national popular vote. Forty-one Democrats, eight Republicans and six Libertarians have submitted responses so far. 

Though Democratic respondents disagreed on some issues, they were unanimous in their support National Popular Vote, which would guarantee the U.S. Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Donald Trump lost the national popular vote by almost 3 million votes but was still named President. 

“We want to help voters do their research and engage with candidates on critical democracy issues that we will face in the new year,” said Kate Titus, executive director of Common Cause Oregon. 

Common Cause Oregon also offers two resources for voters considering Congressional candidates. The federal version of the Democracy2018.org questionnaire poses 18 questions about democracy issues – from overturning Citizens United, to protecting the Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election, to removing the citizenship question from the 2020 Census – to the nine candidates competing for federal office.  

In addition, the Democracyscorecard.org website provides data on every current member of Congress based on their sponsorship or co-sponsorship of key democracy reform. “It’s important to see if incumbents’ records match up with what they are telling voters they stand for,” Titus said. 

Common Cause Oregon encourages everyone to visit democracy2018.org and click on the Oregon state icon to view the questionnaire results. Voters can also easily contact candidates with the click of a button to ask them to go on the record on the issues, many of which will be addressed by the state legislature and Congress in 2019.