The Greater Idaho movement submitted enough valid signatures to earn a position on the May 2022 ballot, Douglas County Clerk Dan Loomis announced yesterday. He validated 3003 signatures of Douglas County voters on the initiative petition, and awarded the number 10-185 to the county measure.
This ballot measure, qualified for the ballot yesterday, would amend a 1997 ordinance that authorizes county officers and employees to advocate for Oregon legislation that would affect the county. The measure would allow advocacy for Idaho legislation, including any Idaho legislation to move the Oregon/Idaho border.
Douglas County, Oregon voted in November 2020 on a non-binding question about Greater Idaho referred to the ballot by the county Board of Commissioners. However, the president of Citizens for Greater Idaho, Mike McCarter, said “we hardly spent anything on that campaign, and there was nothing in the voter pamphlet, so voters didn’t even know what they were voting on in 2020. Now, in this campaign, we are asking our fans to connect us with potential major donors so that we can deliver a convincing win in Douglas and Klamath counties. We want to spend $25k in Klamath County and at least $40k in Douglas County so voters will understand how much better Idaho’s low-tax, conservative governance is than Oregon’s governance.”
“If southwestern Oregon wants to be included in this border relocation, then Douglas County needs to prove it with their vote. Otherwise, state legislatures might settle for just eastern Oregon,” he said.
The Klamath County Clerk announced last week that the movement’s initiative had qualified for the May 2020 Klamath County ballot. The movement expects three or four counties to vote on its initiatives this May according to the movement’s website greateridaho.org. So far, eight counties have voted for ballot measures submitted by the movement: two in November 2020, five in May 2021, and one in a special election last month.
McCarter claims both states stand to gain financially from the border shift, as rural Oregon’s resource-based economy is better suited to Idaho law than Oregon law. Eastern and southern Oregon are like Idaho in the percentage of their vote they give to each political party, he said.
“Oregon’s new district maps for the next decade make a ‘red wave’ impossible in the Oregon Legislature. Southern and eastern Oregon send Republicans to the Legislature, so that means our representatives will be ignored for another 10 years because they’re not a part of the majority,” he said.
Updated maps for the movement are here: www.greateridaho.org/the-maps
Photos for this release are at www.greateridaho.org/douglas-county-clerk-says-greater-idaho-has-enough-valid-signatures