Source: Associated Press Pubdate: Sat, 10 Jul 1998 Author: CHARLES E. BEGGS MARIJUANA, MAIL VOTING HEAD TO NOVEMBER ELECTION (AP) -- Oregonians will vote this fall on legalizing medical use of marijuana, allowing mail voting in all elections and barring government payroll deduction to collect union dues for political purposes. State elections officials also announced on Friday that the Oregon Citizens Alliance failed to qualify an anti-abortion initiative for the November ballot. The OCA measure would have banned abortion in the second and third trimester except to save the mother's life. The failure is the second general election in which the group opposing abortion and gay rights has failed to get an initiative on the ballot. OCA Chairman Lon Mabon has said the organization's future is ion some doubt. The secretary of state said the OCA petitions had only about 88,000 valid signatures, with 97,000 needed to put the issue on the ballot. Workers are about halfway through tallying and checking signatures on the 11 proposed initiative measures filed for the November general election. The secretary of state's office has until next Friday to finish the job. Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Sizemore succeeded in qualifying his union dues proposal for the ballot. A similar initiative was defeated last month in California. Another proposal, to impose tougher sentences for property crimes, was rated a tossup. The first signature check indicated it was very close to qualifying, and a second check was ordered. State Elections Director Colleen Sealock said if she was a supporter of the property crime proposal, she would be "optimistic ... that they will qualify." Signatures are checked by scientific sampling. Only if the first sampling indicates a proposed initiative does not qualify for the ballot, a second sampling is checked. Measure supporters need 73,261 signatures of registered voters to put their issues on the ballot. A proposed constitutional amendment requires 97,681 signatures to make the ballot. The marijuana measure is similar to medical pot laws passed last year by voters in California and Arizona. Supporters say marijuana can relieve symptoms of cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses. Police organizations have pledged to fight the measure on grounds it will lead to wider drug use. The measure, by coincidence, will join another one on the November ballot that will decide whether to reinstate criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana. The 1997 Legislature passed that law, but those who want the law the way it was -- no criminal penalties for possession of less than an ounce -- gathered enough signatures to put the issue to a vote. Meantime, measures on vote-by-mail and adoption were declared qualified for the ballot Friday. Mail voting now is permitted in all elections but the biggest ones, the primary and general elections. Legislators have refused to extend mail voting to those elections. The adoption measure would ensure that adopted people 21 and older could obtain copies of their original birth certificates. - --- Checked-by: Mike Gogulski