Nearly every proposed Oregon initiative won’t make it onto the November ballot

Oregonians proposed nearly 90 changes to state law or the Oregon Constitution for the November 2026 ballot, and a dozen of those petitions with priorities ranging from ending mail voting to enshrining civil rights for women and LGBTQ+ people in the state constitution cleared an initial hurdle. 

But with a looming July 2 deadline to submit tens of thousands of voter signatures that demonstrate support for their ideas, most of those petitions won’t move forward. From attempts to eliminate the state estate tax to overturning waterway permits for non-motorized boats, organizers cited not having enough time, volunteers and funding to see their petitions through. 

Only one petition is on track — a stark contrast from previous election cycles which saw five ballot measures appear in the November 2024 ballot and four in November 2022. The Oregon Legislature didn’t refer any constitutional amendments or laws to voters this year.

Oregonians seeking to directly change state law or the Oregon Constitution first have to gather 1,000 signatures from voters, get the state attorney general to draft a ballot title and summary and overcome any legal challenges to that title. To place a constitutional amendment on the ballot, petitioners then need more than 156,000 verified signatures from registered Oregon voters. To change state law, petitioners need about 117,000. 

Initiative Petition 28, an effort led by Portland-based vegan advocates to ban harming or killing all animals with almost no exceptions, had submitted 138,300 signatures as of Wednesday to the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office. That’s 20,000 signatures more than what they need to qualify for the ballot. The secretary of state still needs to verify those signatures before the petition can secure a spot on the ballot. 

Petitioners are in their third attempt to place their petition on the ballot, each time having attracted more supporters, lead petitioner David Michelson told the Capital Chronicle over the phone.

This time, however, they’ve raised more than $300,000 in cash contributions and loans, according to state campaign finance records. That’s enough money to pay people to collect signatures. About 75% of the campaign’s signature collectors are paid, Michelson said, adding that the campaign usually pays about 30 people a month to collect them.

Oregon petition to ban hunting and fishing moves closer to November ballot

The campaign’s funding comes from a mix of smaller donations to a mix of large sums, including $35,000 from a financial services consultant living in Saint Petersburg, Russia, $30,000 from the Craigslist Charitable Fund, $25,000 from early Bitcoin investor Owen Gunden and $20,000 from People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA. 

“They’re all animal rights people,” Michelson said during a phone interview. “They’re all people who have given to animal rights causes in the past who eventually heard about our campaign and wanted to support our campaign.”

Some petitions look to 2028 and other avenues for policy change

Only one group that reached the signature gathering process has officially withdrawn its petition. 

The Equal Rights for All coalition in February withdrew its petition aiming to codify the right to abortion, same-sex marriage, contraception and in vitro fertilization and gender-affirming care in the Oregon Constitution. 

“This is a particularly difficult time, as the federal government attacks our rights, freedom, and basic humanity,” the coalition said in a statement. “However, members of our coalition are committed to continuing to fight back, while also holding the decision that (the petition) is not the vehicle for the fight at this time.”

The remaining petition groups are expected to fall short of the signature threshold, but some are already looking ahead to future elections.

That includes the high-profile petitions aiming to tighten restrictions on Oregon’s pretrial release program and ending the state’s estate tax.

Both efforts, coined the “Oregon Crimefighting Act” and the “End the Death Tax Act” petitions, were led by Rep. Kevin Mannix, a Salem Republican who has experience leading five successful past ballot measures. This year, his petitions didn’t receive enough signatures to meet the upcoming deadline, according to both petitions’ websites. 

“We’re not giving up on the cause, and we plan to take an earlier and more comprehensive approach in 2028,” said Michael Sewell, a chief petitioner of the Oregon Crimefighting Act and a member of Mannix’s Salem law firm who worked closely on the estate tax petition.

Bipartisan organizers hoping to open Oregon’s primaries through two ballot initiatives also are postponing their efforts until 2028. 

Former Republican state Rep. Cheri Helt of Bend, who is leading the effort alongside former Democratic Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Independent Part of Oregon co-chair Andrew Kaza, blamed the delay on lengthy legal battles in the Oregon Supreme Court over the ballot title’s wording. 

“We’re going to encourage the Oregon Legislature to take up the matter in 2027, and then we’ll look at ballot titles again in 2028,” she told the Capital Chronicle. “We feel it’s really important. There’s 1.1 million nonaffiliated voters. It’s the largest class of voters in the state of Oregon, and they’re shut out from the primaries, and it is a complete injustice that we want to fix.”

And the petition behind the effort to end Oregon’s “at-will” employment system, which gives employers the right to fire a worker at any time for any reason, also isn’t likely to make the November ballot, its chief petitioner said in a phone interview.  

“We have the greatest confidence in our proposal, and we believe with more time and resources we will be able to realize these due process rights for working people,” chief petitioner Matthew Fennell said, adding that he anticipates following up with another petition in the future. 

Petitioners talk financial barriers

Several petition organizers said they wouldn’t meet the signature threshold because they didn’t have the financial resources for a widescale petition. 

“Gathering all of those signatures — it is just non-trivial and it’s a lot of work,” said Dean Suhr, a West Linn resident leading an effort to force public voter approval before the state can implement any road or bridge tolls. “We didn’t raise much money, and we didn’t hire any paid signature gatherers. We thought that we could get enough momentum and traction, and while the emotional sense was there, the practical sense, we didn’t get there.”

This was Suhr’s third attempt at a ballot measure and his second time reaching the signature-gathering stage. He hasn’t decided whether he’ll try again. 

Like Suhr, the group behind the effort to overturn Oregon’s permitting requirements for non-motorized boats doesn’t expect to make the November ballot. 

The group, Let Us Paddle, formed in 2025 after the Oregon Legislature passed a law expanding permitting requirements for non-motorized boats. That means users of kayaks, canoes, rafts, paddle boards and their inflatable versions must buy a $20 yearly permit, with that funding going toward combatting invasive species. 

The group has collected more than 36,000 signatures, according to chief petitioner Kari Goodheart. But it needs more than 117,000 to make the ballot. 

“It’s really pulling on our heartstrings because we’re so far from the number needed to make the deadline, but yet every single day our mailbox is just inundated with all of these signature sheets,” Goodheart said. 

Goodheart, who has spent nights sleeping in her car while campaigning for the petition across the state, said she is proud of the petition despite having limited volunteers and financial resources. She said she plans to advocate for the law’s repeal in the 2027 legislative session. 

Several other campaigns haven’t publicly updated how many signatures they’ve collected since their petition was approved to circulate, state records show. That includes petitioners behind the effort to end mail-in voting, as well as an effort to levy a 2% tax on individuals with net assets worth $30 million or more. Neither group responded to calls from the Capital Chronicle for a request for comment.

Meanwhile, a petition aiming to repeal Oregon’s firearm permit laws and high-capacity magazine bans reported having collected 3,300 signatures as of mid-June — 114,000 signatures away from what it needs to qualify for the ballot. Chief petitioner Edwin McLeod did not respond to calls for a request for comment.

Two referenda were approved this election cycle. Only one was successful

The Oregon Secretary of State also approved two referenda, or petitions that would allow Oregon voters to reject or approve an Oregon law, to circulate this election cycle.

One referendum took place in May, when Oregon voters rejected parts of a 2025 Democratic-led law to increase the state’s gas tax and other transportation fees. Rep. Ed Diehl, R-Scio, Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Dundee and Taxpayer Association of Oregon Founder Jason Williams led that effort.

The second referendum, led by Diehl, Republican Rep. Dwayne Yunker of Grants Pass and the Oregon Freedom Coalition, aimed to overturn a 2026 Democratic-led law that disconnected the state from the federal tax code. Those efforts failed after petitioners admitted earlier this month they wouldn’t be able to collect enough signatures by the July 2 deadline.