Source: Associated Press Pubdate: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 Author: Charles E. Beggs. The Associated Press PETITION SIGNATURES GATHERED BY NON-VOTERS REMAIN VALID SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Signatures on initiative petitions gathered illegally by non-registered voters remain valid, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. The case involves an initiative petition drive that put a cigarette tax increase on the ballot in 1996. The measure passed. A Salem tobacco company lobbyist, Mark Nelson, challenged the signature gathering. He produced evidence that some of the petitioners were not Oregon registered voters, a violation of Oregon law. Nelson argued that the practice amounted to voter fraud and the signatures collected by non-registered voters should be nullified. He acknowledged that no law allows for signatures to be invalidated in such cases but contended authorities ought to have a common-law remedy to prevent voters from being defrauded. But the Court of Appeals said Nelson assumed that the "collection of signatures by individuals not registered to vote amounts to fraud." There is no evidence that petitioners "falsely represented themselves to be registered Oregon voters or as to how anyone was injured as a result," the appeals court said. Nelson also contended that the petitioners' verifications that they gathered the signatures should have been rejected because they weren't registered voters. But the court said petitions verified by a circulator who isn't a registered voter "strictly speaking contain no falsehood" as long the circulators believed the signatures were from qualified Oregon voters. Oregon was flooded with initiative petition carriers in 1996, many of them paid, and 16 measures made it onto the November ballot. The Court of Appeals ruling upheld a decision by Marion County Judge Albin Norlbad Jr., who said petition signatures are to be counted even if the circulators gathering them are not legally qualified. He said in a similar case that the law is meant to punish only unqualified circulators, not the voters who sign the petitions. - --- Checked-by: Richard Lake