Dear Elections Officials:

Thank you for the work you do every day to give every Oregon voter a voice in our democracy and keep our local elections safe, secure, and fair.

I’m urging you to uphold the integrity of our elections by:

1. Quickly and thoroughly investigating all instances of alleged illegal activity by the petitioners and registered agents of initiative 1PDX2026;

2. Halt signature validation on 1PDX2026 until the investigation is complete;

3. Refuse to validate any signatures that were collected in violation of state law.

The Secretary of State’s Office has confirmed that over 75 individuals have filed complaints that they were explicitly lied to about the content of the initiative by circulators and tricked into signing the 1PDX2026 petition, in violation of state law.

As reported in the Willamette Week, on July 8, your offices received a thorough complaint containing explicit proof of dozens more violations of election law: circulators not witnessing signatures; circulators not carrying and providing the full text of the measure when requested; mailing out single signer sheets without a copy of the initiative’s full text; and of course, more explicit falsehoods about the content of the measure.

Oregon voters deserve better. At a time when the integrity of our elections is under attack, it’s more important than ever that Oregon’s elections officials uphold the rule of law and do not allow bad actors to illegally manipulate our elections. There must be consequences for a campaign that breaks the law countless times; The campaign should not be rewarded for their illegal activity by qualifying for the ballot without adequate legal signatures, at great cost to voters and taxpayers across our city and county.

We urge your offices to halt signature verification until a thorough investigation is completed. And we urge your offices to only validate signatures that can be proven to be collected in accordance with state law.

Thank you.