valhoyle.jpg
House Majority Leader Val Hoyle, D-Eugene, wants to figure out a way to give the growing number of non-affiliated voters a role in the state's partisan primaries.
(AP Photo/Don Ryan)
House Majority Leader Val Hoyle wants to figure out how to give the growing number of non-affiliated voters a voice in the state's partisan primaries.
The Eugene Democrat said it's an issue that is gaining urgency. The percentage of voters who don't register by party has more than doubled since 1990, with 24.5 percent now registered as non-affiliated.
In addition, under Oregon's new motor voter law - which automatically registers people using driver's license data - the number of unaffiliated voters is expected to rapidly climb in the next several years.
With the new system, voters will be notified by mail that they have been registered and will be given a chance to opt out - or to register with one of the state's parties. But the conventional wisdom is that most of these voters will not bother to register with one of the parties.
"People more and more don't have the same kind of alignment with a political party," said Hoyle, noting that younger voters in particular are less interested in being a member of a party.
As a result, Hoyle has kicked off legislative deliberations about how to give this growing pool of unaffiliated voters a role in primaries that in Oregon are typically only open to party members.
Hoyle this week held a hearing in the House Rules Committee on a bill she introduced that calls for an eye-catching change in the state's primary system.
House Bill 3500 would send each of the major-party primary ballots to non-affiliated voters along with the nonpartisan ballot that every voter receives. Non-affiliated voters could return one of those party ballots while consenting to register in that party.
Hoyle said she introduced the bill for discussion purposes. She intends to amend it to set up a work group to study the issue and come up with a recommendation for the 2016 Legislature. Any proposed change would not take place until after the 2016 election cycle, she promised.
Hoyle's primary proposal didn't pick up a lot of support, but several people said they were interested in working with her on a way to get more voters involved in the primaries.
"It is an issue that has to be tackled," said Joe Baessler, political director for the Oregon chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. He said he wants to get his non-affiliated members involved in primaries, which in many legislative districts determines who will win the election.
Greg Leo, a lobbyist who is a top volunteer for the Oregon Republican Party, said he had concerns about Hoyle's bill but also expressed interest in working with her on a solution.
The tricky part, Hoyle and others said, is finding an approach that doesn't violate a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says political parties can't be forced to open their primaries to non-members.
New Hampshire deals with that issue by allowing people to register with a party when they go to the polls to vote. But that approach doesn't mesh with Oregon's vote-by-mail system.
Hoyle said she wants any study of the issue to look at how to make it easier for parties to open their primaries to non-affiliated voters.
The Oregon Democratic and Republican parties both experimented with opening their primaries in recent years. But the secretary of state has used a cumbersome process -- involving sending postcards to non-affiliated voters months in advance asking if they wanted to receive a party primary ballot - that attracted little interest from voters.
The Independent Party of Oregon, which recently gained enough voters to achieve major-party status, says it wants to hold a primary next year open to non-affiliated voters. That might also increase interest in the issue since it could spur the other major parties to reach out to unaffiliated voters.
Hoyle said the agreed to look at non-affiliated voters as a result of the fight last year over Measure 90, which would have created a nonpartisan "top two" primary similar to those held in Washington and California. Hoyle opposed that measure and it later failed, but she promised supporters she would try to look at improvements to the current system.
That took on more urgency, she said, with the new system of voter registration.
Not everyone at the hearing thought there was a problem that needed to be fixed.
"I don't believe we have barriers to voting," said Rep. Carl Wilson," R-Grants Pass, noting that voters are free to register as they wish.
--Jeff Mapes
503-221-8209
@Jeffmapes