Seth Woolley, Pacific Green  
for Oregon Secretary of State  

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About the Secretary of State

Freedom & Equality with Accountability & Transparency

The Secretary of State administers our elections, audits our government, manages files and archiving, and sits on the Land Board charged with preserving our state forests. The vast bulk of the Secretary's job description revolves around ensuring government integrity with both accountability and transparency. The Secretary is responsible for our democracy from which we preserve our freedom and equality.

Accountability

When our elected officials in all branches of government are not serving in the public interest, our election processes allow us to choose a different legislator, judge, or executive officer (such as Governor, Treasurer, and Secretary of State itself).

Oregon was one of the first states to implement other controls on elections to allow more direct democracy when our representative government is not working adequately. This is why Oregonians pioneered in 1902 and subsequent years, the "Oregon System" of initiative, referendum, and recall to hold officials to account directly. The Oregon System was emulated and spread to a couple dozen more states in the country.

When the legislature fails to act or acts inappropriately, we can use the initiative and referendum systems to legislate directly or to veto a bill directly. When a specific official (legislator, executive officer, or judge) needs to be replaced immediately due to a breech of the public trust, we have the recall system.

Transparency

Furthermore, the office of Secretary of State manages the state auditors and handles archiving and publishing certain government data. Auditing ensures that our tax dollars are spent according to the dictates of the legislature and citizen initiatives and that our executive officers are being effective in their roles, even where not normally accessible to the public.

All of the above accountability processes, from elections to auditing to archiving and publishing can only operate with an emphasis on transparency as a fundamental principle. Accountability requires transparency.

Campaign Integrity

In the wake of the Citizens United decision, the national dialog has moved to the corrupting influence of unlimited donations creating bailouts for special interests and major donors of both parties. But Citizens United only dealt with one specific case: the ability of any donor (corporation or individual) "unconnected" with candidates to spend unlimited sums of money for or against federal candidates. Direct donations to candidates are still restricted.

Here in Oregon the situation has been much more dire. In Oregon, there are no enforced limits on all campaign donations -- corporations, unions, out of state major donors like Loren Parks -- it doesn't matter from whom. Anybody and anything can donate unlimited amounts to any candidate, period. This is true despite the fact that in 1994 and 2006 voters passed comprehensive limits on campaign donations.

Ready Solutions for our Primary Problems

Campaign Finance Limits

The 2006 Measure 47 that created comprehensive limits on donations to candidates has remained unenforced while a suit to compel enforcement goes through the courts. It is now at the Oregon Supreme Court level, likely its last stop in the court system. Oral arguments have been delivered, and we await a decision, but no argument has been advanced as to its constitutionality. It is thus almost assured to withstand that test.

The powers that be still oppose campaign finance limits, including Democratic incumbent Kate Brown. In 2008, Brown came out "in favor" of campaign finance limits and has done nothing meaningful to help resolve the situation. Brown could decide at any time that she is in favor of enforcing the law and eliminating legalized bribery of candidates from Oregon's election system.

Open Source Performance Auditing

Oregon has only a limited budget for Performance auditing and other legally mandated audits, so the Secretary's job is difficult, though auditing generally restores more funds than it costs. Oregon could stand to both have more resources for auditing and to do auditing in a more efficient manner.

Oregon should make auditing more efficient by focusing more resources on creating automated processes and policies through rule-making funded by the Auditing Department to spend more resources up front opening up access to government machinations and internal data. As the data is gradually and permanently made more transparent, the public will now have a chance to contribute to self-auditing its own government, where the interests of taxpayers and service recipients will merge to benefit both.

Election Method Reform

Recall and initiatives are a rather crude way of working around our dysfunctional elected leadership, and they will always be necessary. However, we should address the root of the problem -- our "winner take all" election system that created our "two party system" by allowing minorities to win with only the most votes counted, even without a majority of the votes.

There are solutions to this problem, most of which revolve around "ranking" candidates in order of preference, first, second, and third, and so on. This allows election officials to count elections using an "instant runoff voting" system where the ranked choices are counted, and if nobody gains a majority, the last place candidate is eliminated and the second place votes, and so on, are counted, until only one candidate is left or somebody receives a majority of the votes.

There are other election methods and reforms we could implement, even different counting methods, especially if we want to fix our gerrymandered districts, by implementing proportional representation. We should consider more fundamental reform to our election methods to create inclusion rather than division in the legislature, and to allow the new majority of voters (and many now non-voters) unaffiliated with the "two big parties" to have a meaningful say in the outcome of our elections.

Nobody should have to vote for the lesser of two evils. Nobody has to. In 1908, Oregon voters used the new initiative process to authorize, via a Constitutional Amendment (Art. II Sec. 16), both ranked ballots and proportional representation if we enact them.

Polls now show many party members are dissatisfied with their own party even if they vote party-line most of the time out of fear of the other more extreme party. By involving everybody, including moderates and third parties, we can have a more informed and more diverse discussion disincenting "wedge issues" that drive us apart and the "partisan" politics of negative campaigning out of fear of the worst evil.

Seth Woolley for Secretary of State

The office of Secretary of State demands a reformer with a deep understanding of election systems and the need for campaign finance reform combined with deep skills in data analysis to ensure transparent government. Seth Woolley is the most qualified candidate, with a long history of activist work on behalf of real election reform, while uncorrupted by special interest and large donations as the only candidate intending to adhere to the spirit of our currently unenforced Measure 47 campaign finance limits.

Please donate $50 to this effort to restore democracy, up to a maximum of $500 to restore accountability and transparency to our election system and our government. A donation form will appear shortly on this page. If you cannot contribute money, please check the right side of the page and click the registration link to ensure the Pacific Green Party can continue nominating grassroots, truth-to-power candidates like Seth Woolley.

Seth will end legalized bribery, enforce
measure 47 which the voters enacted

You, the citizens of Oregon, voted to enact reasonable limits for campaign donations that would ensure broad support for candidates. The current Democratic Secretary refuses to enforce the law, despite no portion ever being overturned by the courts. The complaint to compel enforcement is likely to succeed at the Oregon Supreme Court level.

Seth will ensure a majority in our elections:
instant runoff voting

Over a hundred years ago, the citizens of Oregon voted to allow ranking candidates in order of preference when voting. Seth will support implementing progressive election method reform and will work with non-partisan leaders like former Secretary of State Phil Kiesling and moderate Republicans like Allen Alley to bring forward a collaborative solution to the wedge-issue bickering that passes for partisan debate in Oregon. Our constitution provides in Article II Section 16 ranked ballots and proportional representation, allowing people the freedom to vote for candidates other than the lesser of two evils running on wedge issues. Spoiled elections are not meaningful elections. Instant Runoff Voting would ensure that if no candidate receives a majority of first choice votes, a "runoff" election is held instantaneously, taking into account voters' second choice votes.

Seth will be for independent candidates and
fair ballot access

The current Democratic Secretary is violating the law in preventing the Pacific Green Party from having ballot access. Regarding 2005 HB 2614, with moderates from both the Democrats and Republicans, Seth fought to repeal this undemocratic provision that made getting any independent on the ballot nearly impossible. Seth understands the need for more choices and knows that the young are no longer registering with traditional major parties for a reason: we need better election laws, rules, and interpretations to allow grassroots candidates not to be hindered by statutory second and third class status. The Secretary of State is the chief elections officer, a power that allows it to compel compliance with election law.

Don't let duopoly parties spoil your vote,
vote Seth Woolley for Secretary of State

On the Land Board, Seth will
end logging and pipeline easements

As a member of the three member State Land Board, the Secretary of State is a critical vote to end resource extraction as a means of monetizing the Common Schools Fund. The Land Board oversees the Common Schools Fund, created by a six percent land allocation by the federal government when Oregon became a state. The Land Board is constitutionally required to maximize revenue for schools, so resource extraction is currently required. However, Seth would propose the creation of an Oregon's Forests Trust funded by carbon taxes where timber easements would be diverted from timber sales. Such a plan would require no debt (as easements are only granted gradually) and carbon taxes would be adjusted to account for the current years' sales. The exchange would be for a perpetual easement taking into account future value to prevent the common schools fund from being drained of value. In addition, Seth would continue to promote and accelerate the use of state lands for renewable energy: solar, wind, and wave. Seth would also forbid the use of state lands as easements for non-renewable carbon infrastructure, for example, saying no to highways and LNG pipelines.

Seth will ensure
auditable election software and hardware

Elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and as such cannot ever be subject to "trade secrets". Without auditable software and hardware counting our already paper-trailed ballots, election auditors rely on statistical sampling to ensure the integrity of our elections. Seth will require that audits of all election software and hardware be open and accessible to the public. Seth will also mandate that statistical sampling of our paper ballots provide at least 99% confidence in the computer tally of each election.

Seth will open state government
to deep public oversight

Seth will use his experience developing software platforms and website technology for location-aware and high-performance databases to open up access to our government. Every government dollar will be tracked to its ultimate uses through a drill-down website where any citizen may observe both government waste and efficiencies. At the same time, using open data and publishing formats will allow further data processing by the public, as proposed by Jerry Brito and Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy.

Seth will promote direct democracy
and the ballot measure initiative process

Initiatives are a form of direct democracy that shall never be weakened by government interference. The initiative process, particularly for statutes, needs to be made easier to enable grassroots organizations to get a hearing of the people, not of indirect representatives, currently bought and sold to the highest bidder without Campaign Finance Reform like Measure 47. We need to ban all paid signature gathering. If you can't do it with volunteers, it's not something the people can get behind. Electronic signature gathering should also be examined. Seth has written cryptography for election systems to ensure the validity of electronic elections. Seth would work to change the requirement that at least the ten most-signed initiatives for each election cycle, even if they didn't qualify by signature count, will be put up to a vote, with only the top two (under the signature count) from any one subject. If a complete ban on paid signature gathering is not allowed (as a Colorado ban was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1988), then those going into the initiative primary could be just for volunteer gathering only. An alternative to using signature counts as the sole criteria would be Meek and Lonsdale's Initiative Primary proposal. Under no circumstances should a legislative or jury review system vet the proposals in an official capacity (although I should note that I love the jury review idea as a completely non-governmental organization that publishes statements in the voter's guide just like any other individual or organization may) as my Democratic opponent has suggested, a violation of separation of powers. Only the courts should have the privilege to check citizen-enacted legislation or amendments, and only for constitutionality. Moreover, a super-majority (2/3) of the legislature should be required to undo a statutory initiative without refering the issues back to the voters.

Legislative redistricting
needs action before the next census to fix the current partisan and flawed process

Often, the legislature is unable to come to agreement on a state redistricting plan. The best districts could be computed from criteria in ORS 188.010, with community input to meet ORS 188.010(1)(d). Specifically, ORS 188.010(2) outlines that no political party, not just two, should be favored by the processes used. As a spatial database expert, Seth would favor no political party and instead develop open and free software to meet the entirety of state law. Currently, in Oregon, many seats are unopposed by the other major party due to bipartisan compromises to reduce the number of competitive seats. With a recomputed redistricting based on neutral criteria, it will turn out that we get an increase in debate due to closer races and an easier opportunity for minor parties to participate in broadening the debate.

Seth will work for
default registration

While the 21-day requirement is cooked into our books, for the general election, voters should be able to register to vote until the last day of voting. This would enfranchise young people who often miss their ability to vote after the election discussion has just started to heat up. Seth will lobby the legislature to pass a bill similar to HJR 43 (2007), which would enable same day registration. But going further than that, we need to use the infrastructure we already have with online voter registration to make everybody by default a voter. Then our turnout will go from fairly decent numbers to abysmally low, reflecting how few people actually feel empowered by voting. When this is done, too, a dramatically high amount of people will become unaffiliated voters, more than the 1/3 of currently registered (much higher the younger registrants are). The major parties are extremely small minorities who act like they have a lot of support, but the non-voters and non-affiliated counts are vast and are the real majority.