Oregon’s eight recognized political parties are about to get downsized on the ballot this year – and they are not happy about it. The Oregon secretary of state’s office, saying that a new fusion-voting law is putting a squeeze in space on the ballot, plans to have each party listed next to a candidate’s name by a three-letter abbreviation.
Here are the three-letter abbreviations the secretary of state intends to use for the state’s political parties:
CON Constitution Party
DEM Democratic Party
IND Independent Party
LBT Libertarian Party
NON Non-Affiliated
PGP Pacific Green Party
PRO Progressive Party
REP Republican Party
WFP Working Families Party
A Democrat will be known as a DEM. A Republican will be a REP. And a Libertarian will be an LBT (which sounds suspiciously close to the common abbreviation for a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich).
Under a law passed by the 2009 Legislature, candidates are allowed to list the nominations of up to three parties on the ballot. That’s a problem in Lane County, where County Clerk Cheryl Betschart said software limitations prevent using more than about 50 characters for a candidate’s name and party designation.
Betschart said the county will be getting new elections hardware that will solve this problem, but not in time for the November election.
As a result, the secretary of state’s office is drafting rules for abbreviating the names of each party. Spokesman Don Hamilton noted that the ballot and Oregon Voters’ Pamphlet will also contain keys to the abbreviations in the hope of limiting voter confusion.
But the parties are not happy that the state is messing with their brand names.
“If you’re using a key, it’s confusing on its face,” said Trent Lutz, executive director of the Democratic Party of Oregon.
“Keep the ballot as simple and as straightforward as possible,” said Oregon Republican Chairman Bob Tiernan, who hadn’t actually heard what the state was doing until I contacted him Tuesday.
Because the Oregon Republican Party didn’t respond to the state by last Friday, the secretary of state selected a three-letter designation for the Republicans.
The minor parties were particularly unhappy, saying it would dilute the gains they made under the fusion voting law.
“Your plan represents fundamental discrimination against minor parties,” Portland lawyer Dan Meek wrote to state Elections Director Stephen Trout, arguing that voters are particularly unlikely to recognize the three-letter abbreviation for such parties as the Pacific Greens and the Working Families Party.
Meek, one of the leaders of the Oregon Independent Party, wrote as the attorney for the Progressive Party of Oregon.
Seth Woolley of the Pacific Green Party said it should be up to the counties to fix any software problems instead of violating what he said was the intent of the law that parties be listed by their actual name.
Hamilton said the secretary of state’s office will release its proposed rules for public comment by June 15.
SOURCE: http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2010/06/parties_object_to_being_abbrev.html