Vote YES on Oregon Measures 54 & 55
There are two Measures on the Oregon Ballot in November which are basically housekeeping measures. Both are amendments to the Oregon Constitution. I am very leery about anything that claims to be “merely a housekeeping measure” as they have sometimes changed things differently than we intend. I am also very cautious about anything that amends the Constitution. However, in this case, both of these changes make sense.
Oregon Ballot Measure 54 is titled “Standardizes Voting Eligibility For School Board Elections With Other State And Local Elections.” In plain English, there is a section of the Oregon Constitution that limits those voting in School District elections to those over 21 years of age, while the voting age for all other issues is 18 years old. this provision is not actually being enforced, but it seems right to make this change to correct the Constitution.
Interestingly, it turns out that the impetus for this Ballot Measure was a high school civics project, where the class was looking at outdated provisions in the Oregon Constitution. A recent Oregon Public Broadcasting report tells the story of how this classroom project went on to make the ballot.
Oregon Ballot Measure 55 changes the operative date of redistricting plans, allowing affected legislators to finish their terms in their original districts. Simply put, every ten years with the census, we change the legislative map to reflect where the population has changed, so that each legislator represents a roughly equal number of citizens. There could be a problem when re-drawing the legislative district boundaries, since the senator or representative may no longer live in the district that he or she represents. This amendment will allow that legislator to finish their term serving their original district. There seems to be no reason to oppose this corrective matter.
If only all the questions we faced were as easy as these decisions.
Leave a Reply