He's Baaaack

Phil Keasling that is. Ya'll remember him don't ya? The "father of vote by mail," and former Oregon Secretary of State.Yup he is back with a new concoction of election reforms.

It appears that he feels like he didn't screw up the election process enough with vote by mail. No... Now he wants to bring an open primary to Oregon. It seems he does not like the idea of people being, Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Green Party candidates and or politicians. He would prefer that people had no party affiliation.

Oh hey! That's kinda like Portland aint it? And we all know Portland works oh so well.

Mr. Keisling's measure allows anybody to vote in the primary for any candidate regardless of party. The top two go on to general election. Nominations are taken out of the hands of the parties and rerouted through signature gathering (1000 sigs per statewide office and congress seat, 500 for state legislative seat).

I wonder if Mr. Keisling understands just how the signature gathering process has changed since the DemocratICK party declared war on it about ten years ago?Then again this could all just be a ruse to get his name back in front of the public. We all know he would love a shot at Mahonia Hall (that is the Governor's mansion) again someday and this "anti-politics," politics might just be the course for him.

One amazing thing is that in the pre-amble of his measure Mr. Keisling writes "Whereas citizens should be able to register and affiliate with any legal political party, or not at all, according to their beliefs, and without any coercion or diminishment of their rights as voters..."Oh? Is he saying that currently the converse is true? People are being coerced and their rights diminished? By the Unions maybe? There wouldn't be any coercion there would there be?

Does this mean that Mr. Keisling would be in favor of a measure that would get rid of forced (or coerced) union membership? Hmmm... Or is his pre-amble just a bunch of hot air?

You can read his nightmare scenario over at OrSoS .

Anyone remember the details of his signature gathering problems for his vote-by-mail initiative? I remember him getting into some hot water and the state letting him off, but I don't remember the details.