Oregon Advisory Opinions March 04, 1976: OAG 76-23 (March 4, 1976)

OAG 76-23.

In Or Laws 1975, ch 779 §21 the statute prescribing the contents of a declaration of candidacy for elective office was amended to include the following provision:

"If required by the rules of the major political party, the declaration of a candidate for election as a precinct committeeperson shall include the name of the individual the candidate supports for President of the United States or the word 'uncommitted' or 'no preference.' " ORS 249.221(3).

Section 18 of the 1975 Act amended ORS 249.031 to include the same provision for petitions for nomination, an alternate

method of filing for elective office. ORS 249.031(5). This provision was added in the form of an amendment to provisions in each statute formerly relating to declarations of candidacy and petitions for nomination for election as delegate to a national party convention. ORS 249.221(4) relating to declarations of candidacy provided:

"The declaration of a candidate for election as a delegate to a national party convention shall include the name of the individual the candidate supports for President of the United States or the word 'uncommitted'."

ORS 249.354, specifying the contents of an official primary ballot, then provided in subsection (3) thereof:

". . . If the candidate is seeking election as a delegate to a national party convention there shall be added opposite his name the name of the individual he supports for President of the United States or the word 'uncommitted.' "

Those words were deleted by the 1975 Act in accordance with the change to have delegates to a national party convention selected by a convention of precinct committeepersons rather than by direct election on the primary election ballot. Section 15(1) of Or Laws 1975, ch 779 (designated to be codified as ORS248. 315(1)) now provides:

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"Each major political party shall select delegates to the national convention of the party at a congressional district convention to be held not sooner than 30 days and not later than 40 days after a presidential preference primary election. Delegates to the convention shall be precinct committeepersons elected within the congressional district at the immediately preceding primary election."

The precinct committeepersons are selected as delegates according to whom they favor for President, in proportion to the relative votes their favored candidates received in the preferential primary. Or Laws 1975, ch 779 §15(4) (to be ORS 248.315(4)).

It is apparent that a voter may wish to cast his vote for a candidate for precinct committeeperson who supports the same individual for President as does the voter, so that his preference for President will be fairly and adequately represented at the delegate-choosing convention. The legislature assisted toward this result to the extent that candidates for precinct committeeperson are required to state their preference at the time of filing. That statement is of course a matter of public record.

The legislature did not, however, provide that the candidate's preference (or lack thereof) be printed on the ballot. As noted above, the statute governing the form of the ballot, ORS 249.354, was amended in the same 1975 Act to delete the reference to the preference or non-committment of a candidate for national convention delegate, but no provision was added to place on the ballot what the candidate for precinct committeeperson declared when filing for office.

The record of the candidate's statement is available to the interested voter. It also serves to identify the preference, or lack of any, of the candidate for precinct committeeperson before the primary, and thus help reduce opportunism on the part of those who would seek to be delegates to the national party convention.

But the law strictly controls what is to be on an official ballot, and it does not provide for printing the preference, or lack of preference, or simple non-commitment of a candidate for precinct committee person.

1 The subsection number in each statute was changed by the 1975 Act because an earlier subsection was deleted in both.