Oregon Advisory Opinions March 13, 1963: OAG 63-36 (March 13, 1963)
Collection: Oregon Attorney General Opinions
Docket: OAG 63-36
Date: March 13, 1963
Advisory Opinion Text
OAG 63-36.
Secretary of State
You request an opinion as to whether an elector's name may be included in a poll book prepared after the removal of his registration card from the register and during the 90-day period permitted an elector to avoid the cancellation of his registration when he has failed to vote during the two-year period specified in ORS 247.251.
The county clerk is required to furnish to election boards election supplies, including a poll book. ORS 246.230 and 250.310. Each elector signs the poll book following his name before he receives his ballot. ORS 250.645. ORS 250.310 provides for the list of registered electors as follows:
"(1) The county clerk shall deliver to the election boards in each precinct * * * a list in alphabetical order of all the registered electors and of all persons registered as provided in ORS 247.410 to 247.470 in that precinct. The list constitutes the poll book of the precinct. * * *" (Emphasis supplied)
As to the removal of a registration card from the register and cancellation, ORS 247.251 provides:
"(1) Within 60 days after each regular biennial general election the county clerk shall compare the poll books for all elections held throughout the county during the two years preceding the day following the regular biennial general election with the register of electors. The county clerk shall remove from the register the official registration card of any elector who has not voted in at least one election held throughout the county during the two-year period, as indicated by the poll books. The county clerk shall retain all cards so removed and not replaced under subsection (2) of this section for two years from the date of removal and may thereafter destroy them.
"(2) Within 10 days after the removal of an official registration card from the register of electors under subsection (1) of this section the county clerk shall mail a written notice of such removal to the elector whose card was removed at his residence address
indicated on the card. If the elector appears in the office of the county clerk within 90 days after the date of the notice and signs a statement that the information on his card is still correct, or if the elector signs and mails such a statement to the county clerk within such 90 days, the county clerk shall replace the card in the register. If the elector fails to do either of these things the county clerk shall cancel the registration of the elector."
ORS 247.290 provides in part as follows:
"(1) An elector shall reregister if:
"(a) His registration is canceled under ORS 247.151 or 247.251."
The net effect of these statutes is that an elector loses his registration status, not by his failure to vote during the specified period, but because of his failure to make a statement disclosing that the information on his registration card is still correct. Opinions of the Attorney General, 1952-1954, p. 92. As pointed out in that opinion at page 93:
"Laws regulating the right to vote should be construed to protect this highest of all constitutional privileges---not to deny it. Section 2, Article II, Oregon Constitution; Othus v. Kozer, (1926) 119 Or. 101, 109; State ex rel. v. Hoss, (1933) 143 Or. 383, 389."
During the 90-day reply period, therefore, an elector continues to be a registered elector.
Accordingly, it is our opinion that an elector's name is required to appear in a poll book prepared after the removal of his registration card from the register and during the 90-day period permitted an elector to avoid the cancellation of his registration when he has failed to vote during the two-year period specified in ORS 247.251.