Oregon Advisory Opinions July 18, 1958: OAG 58-104 (July 18, 1958)

OAG 58-104.

You have requested our opinion as to whether the name and address called

ORS 260.360 (1) provides as follows:

"No person shall write, print, publish, post or circulate or cause to be written, printed, published, posted or circulated through the mails or otherwise any letter, circular, bill, placard, poster or other publication relating to any election or to any candidate at any election, unless it bears on its face the name and address of the author and publisher thereof."

It is clear from the language of the statute that its purpose is to assure that all electors who are recipients of any form of publication relating to an election may know who caused the material to be published and circulated. The legislative intent was to outlaw anonymous campaign publications. If the name and address of the author of any such publication is written in a way that is unintelligible to the persons who receive it, the purpose of the statute is thwarted. Such a publication, in effect, is anonymous.

English is the language of the people of the United States and the language in which all the constitutions and laws of the federal and state governments are written. ORS 1.150 requires that all writings in Oregon courts be in the English language, and Aticle II, § 2, Oregon Constitution, and ORS 247.131 provide that no person may vote in Oregon unless he is able to read and write English. The rule as to the language of publications in newspapers required by statutes of the several states is given in 90 A.L.R. 501, as follows:

"* * * where a statute requires or directs that legal or official notices be published in a newspaper, a newspaper printed and published in the English language is intended, in the absence of a direction to the contrary."

It is the opinion of this office that under the election laws of Oregon the name and address of the author and publisher of an election campaign card must appear on the face of such card in English.