Oregon Advisory Opinions May 15, 1958: OAG 58-78 (May 15, 1958)
Collection: Oregon Attorney General Opinions
Docket: OAG 58-78
Date: May 15, 1958
Advisory Opinion Text
OAG 58-78.
State Representative
You have asked whether a campaign card of a size normally used in the business world to introduce a visitor may be identified as an anonymous publication under ORS 260.360. The statute in question provides as follows:
"(1) 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.
"(2) Violation of this section is an illegal practice, and is punishable, upon conviction, by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $1,000, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than six months, or both."
"Publish" ordinarily means to issue, to put in general circulation, to distribute to the public. "Publication" is a public notification or an act of circulating copies of printed material for public notice. Webster's New International Dictionary; Ballentine's Law Dictionary; 35 Words and Phrases 32, 445. These words are used with such meanings in ORS 260.360, and, therefore, printed material carrying a campaign message to the voting public must comply with that statute. See "circular", 7 Words and Phrases 214. The language is all-inclusive and makes or infers no exceptions.
Miske v. Fischer, (Minn.) 259 N.W. 18, was an election contest for the office of constable wherein the plaintiff claimed the defendant had violated that section of the Minnesota Corrupt Practices Act which provided that all matter published concerning a candidate for election should bear the name and address of the author and publisher. The defendant had issued a few small cards which bore only his name and address and the title of the office he sought. There was no identification of the author and circulator. The court found that the publication of the card was in violation of the statute.
The statute under consideration in that case is similar to our own, and the decision should be applicable in Oregon. Whether or not a particular card is deemed to be campaign material "relating to any election" is dependent, of course, upon its contents and purpose, the size or style of the publication being immaterial. Opinions of the Attorney General, 1954-1956, p. 6.
My opinion is that your question must
be answered in the affirmative. A card carrying any kind of a campaign or election advertisement is a publication that must bear on its face the name and address of the author and publisher.