February 28, 2006

 

Contacts:

City of Portland - Diane Betcher 503-823-4082

Secretary of State - Anne Martens 503-986-1502

Multnomah County - Shawn Cunningham 503-988-4369

 

 

 

PORTLAND, OREGON - CITY HALL -- The City of Portland announced today that the campaign to repeal the City's public campaign finance program has submitted 25,855 valid signatures, 836 less than the 26,691 required to qualify for the ballot.

 

This revised final signature count comes after the City, Multnomah County and State of Oregon elections officials discovered a technological error in the Oregon Centralized Voter Registration system and a procedural error in processing the petition sheets.

 

Multnomah County elections officials recertified and released the results to the City of Portland this morning. As soon as elections officials became aware of the potential errors, they requested advice from the Secretary of State's Elections Division. The County, City and State then undertook a full and thorough review of the petition to ensure that every valid signature was counted and that all applicable laws and procedures were carefully followed.

 

The technological error mistakenly excluded 49 registered voters from the valid signature count, while the procedural error mistakenly included over 180 petition sheets that contained circulator errors. The technological issue in the Centralized Voter Registration System has been resolved and city and county procedures have been reviewed to avoid future errors of this nature.

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