Article II, Sections 15-18

This post looks at Article II, Sections 15 through 18 of the Oregon Constitution.

Section 15 discusses the method of voting in the legislature.  It states that it needs to be viva voce .  The intent here is there is accountability required for legislators.  If there was some ballot, especially a secret ballot, it does not allow for the electors to know what a legislator voted and accountability of the legislators to the elected is a key concept in representative democracies.  The legislature has prescribed the method of voting in the statutes.

Section 16 discusses how you win elections.  What is interesting is that this section provides for proportional representation.  However, there is clearly a preference away from proportional representation and I would think that the two main political parties clearly prefer it that way.  Nonetheless, for any specific elected position, the legislature has the option to define the requirements.  If there are no requirements defined, then a plurality of the votes is sufficient to win the election.

Section 17, given the mail-in voting in Oregon, is moot.  It would clearly have had relevance in the past.

Section 18 provides a right to recall.  This requires a petition of 15% of the number of voters in the jurisdiction able to vote for an official to be presented.  Here is some info from Oregon recalls.  Wikipedia mentions a couple of successful and unsuccessful recalls in Oregon.  This site has some good information on recalls as well.  I am of the opinion that while there is danger that special interests will use a recall as a tool to apply pressure on elected officials, if the officials are incompetent or unresponsive, the electors do not have any leverage to really effect change.  Four years are a long time to wait to be able to vote out someone who is not doing a good job.