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Initiative Petition 28, a controversial measure that would ban the commercial slaughter of animals as well as fishing and hunting across the state, has failed the first level of signature verification necessary to place it on the November ballot.
Connor Radnovich, a spokesman for Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, the state’s chief elections officer, confirmed to WW that the initial sample of signatures the Elections Division tested failed to meet the state’s validity threshold.
The IP 28 campaign submitted 142,784 signatures on July 2. To qualify for the ballot, the petition needs 117,173 verified signatures. That would require 82% of the submitted signatures to be valid—but on the first sample, Radnovich says, the IP 28 campaign didn’t hit that mark.
Though the failure is notable and a warning sign that the petition may be in trouble, it’s not the end of the road. If a petition fails the first round of verification, the Elections Division takes another sample of signatures—this time larger—for verification. Should the petition again fail to reach the necessary validity threshold, the petition cannot be placed on the ballot.
Radnovich says the Elections Division is currently verifying signatures in the second sample.
The petition, called the People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty Exemptions, or the PEACE Act, is controversial for obvious reasons. Its backers seek to criminalize common practices, such as animal castration, artificial insemination and killing rodents or other pests, which agricultural groups say would wreak havoc across the state.
David Michelson, the primary architect of IP 28, said in an email on Thursday night that the SOS said 804 of the 1,000 signatures included in the first sample were verified—just shy of the 82% mark.
