Lawsuit Filed to Prevent Oregon Election Officials from Using Three-Letter Party Abbreviations on November Ballot
August 30th, 2010On August 30, the Progressive Party, and the Working Families Party, filed a lawsuit in Oregon state court against a proposal by the Secretary of State to print three-letter abbreviations on the November ballot, instead of full party names. The case is Progressive Party of Oregon v Brown, Marion County Circuit Court, 10C-20167.
Oregon in the past has always printed party names on ballots, but this year the Secretary of State wants to use abbreviations, which would be: REP for Republican; DEM for Democratic; CON for Constitution; IND for Independent Party; LBT for Libertarian; PGP for Pacific Green; PRO for Progressive; and WFP for Working Families.
Also the Secretary of State wants to use NAV for independent candidates. “NAV” means “non-affiliated voter.” The lawsuit will probably be heard quickly. The lawsuit rests mostly on statutory construction, but includes constitutional arguments as well. Another co-plaintiff is incumbent State Senator Larry George. Here is the brief.
August 30th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
If CON= Constitution instead of Conservative I wonder why LIB doesn’t equal Libertarian? Any idea?
August 30th, 2010 at 4:22 pm
Any SRG = STUPID ROTTEN GOVERNMENT ???
August 31st, 2010 at 5:45 am
Richard, I hope you’ll cover the constitutional arguments. Abbreviations clearly give an advantage to more well-known party names.
September 8th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Hey… I don’t know if you’ve been making changes, but your pages aren’t displaying correctly for me. The edges of the text are running into each other. I didn’t do this the last time I was here. I don’t know if it’s my end or if you’ve made a change… Just thought you might want to look at it. Thanks! Willis Fadale