Oregon residents hoping to move the border and be in Idaho need signatures, judge says
The Oregon residents who want to move Idaho’s border to include parts of their state will have to collect the same number of signatures as usual to get on the ballot despite the coronavirus pandemic, a judge ruled Monday.
“Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho” — a group of residents in southwestern Oregon who created petitions to move Idaho’s border west to include part of their state — filed a federal lawsuit to reduce the number of signatures required to get their ballot initiatives before voters.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael McShane denied the group’s motion Monday, saying it didn’t provide any evidence that it was “reasonably diligent in collecting the required signatures,” court documents show.
“Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho announced July 13 that their president had filed a federal lawsuit, in light of the COVID-19 situation, hoping for a reduction of the number of signatures required to get their ballot initiatives on ballots in rural Oregon counties,” Mike McCarter, president of the group trying to expand Idaho, said in an email statement to McClatchy News. “Their ballot initiatives are related to moving the Oregon/Idaho border to make rural Oregon a part of Idaho.”
The deadline for signatures in Oregon county measures is Aug. 5, McCarter said.
“Move Oregon’s Border” leaders said they were unsure if McShane would give the group the same leniency as he recently gave a different group, People Not Politicians.
“Judge McShane granted the request of People Not Politicians that their deadline be delayed from July 2 to August 17, and the number of valid signatures required statewide be reduced from nearly 150,000 to 59,000,” McCarter said.
McShane, however, did not think “Move Oregon’s Border” was diligent in collecting signatures during the coronavirus pandemic, and the number of required signatures will stay the same.
Move Oregon’s Border first got attention in February when the group began its complicated, multi-step process that requires local ballot measures and state and federal approval. The group hopes to eventually have Idaho consume all but 14 of Oregon’s 36 counties, McClatchy News reported.
“Rural counties have become increasingly outraged by laws coming out of the Oregon Legislature that threaten our livelihoods, our industries, our wallet, our gun rights, and our values,” McCarter said in a news release. “We tried voting those legislators out, but rural Oregon is outnumbered and our voices are now ignored. This is our last resort.”
The Oregon Senate and House have Democratic majorities, including a supermajority in the latter, while Republicans control both the Idaho Senate and House. Idahoans have voted for the Republican in presidential races since 1968, while Oregonians have voted Democratic in presidential races since 1988.
Even if county voters like the idea of being part of Idaho, both of the states’ legislatures and the U.S. Congress would need to approve the change, McClatchy News reported.
If the initial movement is successful, the Greater Idaho project would like to bring parts of Northern California into Idaho, according to the news release.
“People here would prefer Idaho’s conservative governance to the progressive/liberal current Oregon governance,” Valerie Gottschalk, another chief petitioner, said in a news release. “Every time I look at … Greater Idaho, the group has gotten bigger.”