Oregon Advisory Opinions July 29, 1959: OAG 59-91 (July 29, 1959)
Collection: Oregon Attorney General Opinions
Docket: OAG 59-91
Date: July 29, 1959
Advisory Opinion Text
OAG 59-91.
Secretary of State
You ask my opinion as to the legal effect of the following irregularities which have occurred in connection with the verification of the referendum petitions against the 1959 personal income tax law heretofore filed with you or with the various county clerks by the so-called "Citizens' Committee for Economy and Equitable Taxation":
(1) On a number of the above petitions the signature of the person signing the affidavit and verifying the petition appears in the body of the affidavit rather than at the bottom thereof in the "pigeon hole" provided on the form prepared by your office.
(2) On a number of petitions the signature of a member of your staff appears in the "pigeon hole" above referred to in addition to the signature of the affiant in the body of the affidavit.
Your Director of Elections, Mr. Thompson, has advised that each sheet of the initiative petitions under consideration has been duly verified on the face thereof by the affidavit of the person who circulated the sheet, stating that every person who signed the sheet did so in the affiant's presence and that the affiant believes that each signer stated his correct residence address and is a registered elector.
ORS 254.040 (1) provides as follows:
"Every sheet of each initiative or referendum petition containing signatures shall be verified on the face thereof by the affidavit of the person who circulated the sheet, stating that every person who signed the sheet did so in his presence and that he believes that
each signer stated his correct residence address and is a registered elector."
The applicable rule is stated in 1 Am. Jur., Affidavits, § 17, as follows:
"* * * The proper position of the signature is below the body of the affidavit, but it is not essential to the validity of the affidavit, even where a signature is required, that it be so placed; an affidavit has been held to comply sufficiently with the statute even though the signature, instead of being affixed below the body of the affidavit and above the jurat, is below the official signature of the notary, and even where the signature appears at the beginning of the affidavit rather than at the end. * * *"
Accordingly, so long as every sheet of the initiative petition containing signatures has been subscribed and sworn to by the person who circulated the referendum petition, stating that every person who signed the petition did so in his presence and that he believes each signer stated his correct residence address and is a registered elector, there is, in my opinion, compliance with the statute. The fact that the affiant may have signed in the wrong "pigeon hole" on the form prepared by your office, or that the signature of a clerk of your staff also appears on each sheet, would not vitiate the petition. The court would, in my opinion, treat the extra signature as mere surplusage and uphold the validity of the petition where it was duly subscribed and sworn to before a notary public as required by the above numbered section.