Complaint filed in signature paying investigation

- SALEM, Ore. - Eight of this year's initiative campaigns are violating a ban on paying signature gatherers by the signature instead of by the hour, according to a complaint filed with the state Elections Division.

Tim Nesbitt and Ellen Lowe, who co-sponsored the 2002 initiative that led to the rule, filed the complaint Friday.

"We hope that there will be a swift and aggressive investigation of this complaint," Lowe said.

Those in favor of the ban say that paying signature gatherers by the amount of signatures they collect encourages fraud and false promises about what an initiative measure will actually deliver.

Details of the complaint won't be divulged because there might be criminal allegations involved, said John Lindback, the director of the Elections Division.

Chief petitioners of initiative campaigns must sign statements indicating that they won't pay signature gatherers by the signature, said Norma Buckno, who handles complaints filed with the Elections Division.

July 7 is the deadline for turning in signatures to qualify initiatives for Oregon's November ballot.

The complaint arrived just days after the Elections Division told a California company that its method of compensating petition carriers for several Oregon initiatives appears to violate the ban on paying per signature.

The division initially approved of Arno Political Consultants' plans for paying signature gatherers, but Lindback sent a letter to the company last week expressing "fresh concerns" about those arrangements.

Lindback said it appeared that the workers' hourly pay and bonuses were directly tied to the number of signatures they collect.

Lindback said the Elections Division has received complaints about Arno's payment structure, under which someone who collects 13-16 signatures per hour gets $17 per hour while someone who collects 31-45 signatures gets $43 an hour.

In addition, other Arno workers were paid bonuses of $500 or more if they collected between 500 and 649 signatures per week.

In response, Michael Arno, owner of Arno Political Consultants, said the company would review its payment methods and bring them into compliance with Oregon's law.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)