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A constitutional amendment to allow Oregon's first nontribal casino in Wood Village has failed to make the ballot, according to Secretary of State Kate Brown.
Brown announced Tuesday that of two initiatives needed to allow the casino to be built in Wood Village, only one – Initiative Petition 77 – contained enough valid signatures to qualify for the Nov. 2 ballot. The companion measure, Petition 76, did not have enough valid signatures.
Initiative Petition 77 is a proposed statutory change authorizing a private casino in Multnomah County.
The companion measure, Petition 76, would have created an exception to the constitutional ban on casinos. The proposed constitutional amendment required 110,358 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The Elections Division determined that of the 172,136 signatures accepted for verification, 60.78 percent, or 104,629, were determined to be valid.
The results of all initiative petition signature verifications for the 2010 election will become final and official Sunday, Aug. 1, the constitutional deadline to complete the process. Until then, any legal challenges or amended verification reports could alter the final numbers. Results are therefore considered unofficial until the Aug. 1 deadline.
Calling the results a “complete surprise,” initiative sponsors Matthew Rossman and Bruce Studer of Lake Oswego said they believe there’s a mistake in the secretary of state’s findings. They plan to work with Democracy Resources, the Portland-based firm they hired to gather the signatures, to ascertain why 40 percent of the signatures gathered in May and June were deemed invalid.
Rossman and Studer's financial backers spent more than $1.2 million to gather signatures for the two measures by the state’s July 2 deadline.
“We strongly believe there’s been a mistake in the secretary of state’s findings,” Rossman said on Tuesday morning. “We’re going to explore all options, which could include filing a lawsuit.”
The secretary of state’s office is working with what Rossman called a “new validity process,” which led to a significant number of gathered signatures being thrown out.
“The result is tens of thousands of signatures were not counted,” he said, “which jeopardizes the rights of Oregonians in the initiative process.”
Don Hamilton, communications director for the secretary of state’s office, said he’s not sure what process changes Rossman refers to. He expressed confidence, however, that state law and guidelines were diligently applied, particularly with the number margins so relatively close.
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