Media

Oregon state election laws often lack common sense. Just ask Ginny Goblirsch, who was recently fined by the Oregon Elections Division for making a “late filing.” Ginny is a Port of Newport commissioner, an unpaid voluntary position. During her campaign two years ago, she paid for some campaign expenditures with her own money because her campaign checks hadn’t arrived, then later reimbursed herself from the campaign account - which is appropriate. Ginny timely filed her campaign financial report, listing herself as a “payee” to reflect her reimbursement.

Two years later, the state asked Ginny to amend the “payee” portion of the report to show who she had personally paid for the campaign expenditures. When Ginny complied, the state slapped her with a fine for making a late filing, and fined Ginny for each of the 259 days that had elapsed since she made the original filing.

I don’t think this election law is weeding out corruption; it is weeding out honest, qualified volunteers from serving in local government. To avoid these types of absurd results, the law should be rewritten to allow filers to clarify timely filed reports, and the law should allow the state to use common sense.

To see the article in the Oregonian click here.