Seth Woolley, Pacific Green  
for Oregon Secretary of State  

End Legalized Bribery  |  Require Majority Vote  |  Fair Ballot Access  |  Save Public Forests  |  Auditable Elections  |  Transparent Government  |  For Direct Democracy  |  Fair Redistricting  |  Same Day Registration

Oregon Green Party

Pacific Green Party  |  PGP Statement

Green Parties

Green Party of the US  |  International Greens

Federal Peace Slate

1. Chris Henry  |  2. Tristin Mock  |  3. Michael Meo  |  4. Mike Beilstein  |  5. Alex Polikoff

US President / VP

Cynthia McKinney
Rosa Clemente

Attorney General

Walt Brown
(Pacific Green & Socialist)

US Senate

Why endorse? Dave Brownlow
(Constitution Party)

Ballot Measures

Measures 54-56: YES  |  Measures 57: NO
unless polls say 61 > 57  |  Measures 58-64: NO  |  Measure 65: BIG NO

Campaign Events

08-10 1000 SOS

Meet Candidates @ Coast
South Beach SP, Newport

09-07 1500 SOS

Corvallis Arts Park
Arts Park, Corvallis

09-17 0900 SOS

Willamette Week Intv.
2220 NW Quimby, Portland

09-23 1900 M65

Rose City NA Meeting
NE 58th & Sandy, Portland

09-25 0930 SOS

Portland Mercury Intv.
NE 21st & Hoyt, Portland

09-27 1100 SOS

KOHD TV Web Voter Guide
KOHD Studio, Bend

09-29 1800 SOS

Capital Manor
1995 Dallas Hw NW, Salem

10-02 1830 SOS

Salem City Club Debate
Chemeketa Bldg 2, Salem

10-03 1600 SOS

LWV of Wash. Co.
TVCTV Studio, Beaverton

10-05 1200 SOS

KLCC Sunday at Noon
Eugene from Portland

10-06 0945 SOS

Salem CCTV Voter Guide
CCTV Studio, Salem

10-08 1200 M65

LWV Debate Norma Paulus
Multnomah Bldg, Portland

10-13 1115 M65

Wa Co Pub Affairs Forum
Elks Lodge, Beaverton

10-15 1200 M65

Beaverton Rotary
Ernesto's Rest., Beaverton

10-15 1900 M65

Am. Ass. of Univ. Women
18th & Franklin, Astoria

10-16 1015 SOS

KVAL TV David Walker
Capitol Building, Salem

10-17 0930 SOS

KOHD TV Evening News
KOHD Studio, Bend

10-20 0800 M65

KBOO Cecil and Celeste
KBOO Studio, Portland

10-23 1900 M65

KGW-8 Portland Intv.
Portland

10-23 1900 SOS

Backspace/Mercury Party
115 NW 5th, Portland

10-24 1200 SOS

Eugene City Club Debate
Downtown Athletic, Eugene

10-29 1130 SOS

Gresham Gov Aff Council
Burnside & Cleveland, Gresham

Elect Seth Woolley to
end legalized bribery, eliminate spoiled votes,
for a strong voice for transparent elections

The Secretary of State administers our elections, audits our government, manages files and archiving, and sits on the Land Board. Seth is the only candidate qualified that is uncorrupted by any special interest money.

Seth will end legalized bribery, enforce
measure 47 which the voters enacted

You, the citizens of Oregon, voted to enact reasonable limits for campaign donations that would ensure broad support for candidates. The current Democratic Secretary refuses to enforce the law, despite no portion ever being overturned by the courts.

Seth will ensure a majority in our elections:
instant runoff voting

One hundred years ago, the citizens of Oregon voted to allow ranking candidates in order of preference when voting. The current Democratic Secretary successfully lobbied against both state and local legislation that would enable this constitutional provision, preventing people from voting for somebody other than the lesser of two evils. Spoiled elections are not meaningful elections. Instant Runoff Voting would ensure that if no candidate receives a majority of first choice votes, a "runoff" election is held instantaneously, taking into account voters' second choice votes.

Seth will be for independent candidates and
fair ballot access

The current Democratic Secretary fought tooth and nail and often in violation of the law to keep independents off the ballot. Seth's Democratic opponent helped to pass 2005 HB 2614, which made getting any independent on the ballot nearly impossible.

Don't let major parties spoil your vote again,
vote Seth Woolley for Secretary of State

On the Land Board, Seth will
end logging and pipeline easements

As a member of the three member State Land Board, the Secretary of State is a critical vote to end resource extraction as a means of monetizing the Common Schools Fund. The Land Board oversees the Common Schools Fund, created by a six percent land allocation by the federal government when Oregon became a state. The Land Board is constitutionally required to maximize revenue for schools, so resource extraction is currently required. However, Seth would propose the creation of an Oregon's Forests Trust funded by carbon taxes where timber easements would be diverted from timber sales. Such a plan would require no debt (as easements are only granted gradually) and carbon taxes would be adjusted to account for the current years' sales. The exchange would be for a perpetual easement taking into account future value to prevent the common schools fund from being drained of value. In addition, Seth would continue to promote and accelerate the use of state lands for renewable energy: solar, wind, and wave. Seth would also forbid the use of state lands as easements for non-renewable carbon infrastructure, for example, saying no to highways and LNG pipelines.

Seth will ensure
auditable election software and hardware

Elections are the cornerstone of our democracy, and as such cannot ever be subject to "trade secrets". Without auditable software and hardware counting our already paper-trailed ballots, election auditors rely on statistical sampling to ensure the integrity of our elections. Seth will require that audits of all election software and hardware be open and accessible to the public. Seth will also mandate that statistical sampling of our paper ballots provide at least 99% confidence in the computer tally of each election.

Seth will open state government
to deep public oversight

Seth will use his experience developing software platforms and website technology for location-aware and high-performance databases to open up access to our government. Every government dollar will be tracked to its ultimate uses through a drill-down website where any citizen may observe both government waste and efficiencies. At the same time, using open data and publishing formats will allow further data processing by the public, as proposed by Jerry Brito and Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy.

Seth will promote direct democracy
and the ballot measure initiative process

Initiatives are a form of direct democracy that shall never be weakened by government interference. The initiative process, particularly for statutes, needs to be made easier to enable grassroots organizations to get a hearing of the people, not of indirect representatives, currently bought and sold to the highest bidder without Campaign Finance Reform like Measure 47. We need to ban all paid signature gathering. If you can't do it with volunteers, it's not something the people can get behind. Electronic signature gathering should also be examined. Seth has written cryptography for election systems to ensure the validity of electronic elections. Seth would work to change the requirement that at least the ten most-signed initiatives for each election cycle, even if they didn't qualify by signature count, will be put up to a vote, with only the top two (under the signature count) from any one subject. If a complete ban on paid signature gathering is not allowed (as a Colorado ban was overturned by the US Supreme Court in 1988), then those going into the initiative primary could be just for volunteer gathering only. An alternative to using signature counts as the sole criteria would be Meek and Lonsdale's Initiative Primary proposal. Under no circumstances should a legislative or jury review system vet the proposals in an official capacity (although I should note that I love the jury review idea as a completely non-governmental organization that publishes statements in the voter's guide just like any other individual or organization may) as my Democratic opponent has suggested, a violation of separation of powers. Only the courts should have the privilege to check citizen-enacted legislation or amendments, and only for constitutionality. Moreover, a super-majority (2/3) of the legislature should be required to undo an initiative.

As secretary of state, legislative redistricting
will likely fall to Seth to finalize

Often, the legislature is unable to come to agreement on a state redistricting plan. When Seth is elected Secretary of State, the legislature will likely continue to gerrymander the system for both major parties, knowing they may lose their current gerrymandered seats. However, if the legislature is again unable to come to agreement, the districts could be computed from criteria in ORS 188.010, with community input to meet ORS 188.010(1)(d). Specifically, ORS 188.010(2) outlines that no political party, not just two, should be favored by the processes used. As a spatial database expert, Seth would favor no political party and instead develop open source software to meet the entirety of state law. Currently, in Oregon, the majority of seats are unopposed by the other major party due to bipartisan compromises to reduce the number of competitive seats. With a recomputed redistricting based on neutral criteria, it will turn out that we get an increase in debate due to closer races and an easier opportunity for minor parties to participate in broadening the debate.

Seth will work for
same day registration

While the 21-day requirement is cooked into our books, for the general election, voters should be able to register to vote until the last day of voting. This would enfranchise young people who often miss their ability to vote after the election discussion has just started to heat up. Seth will lobby the legislature to pass a bill similar to HJR 43 (2007), which would enable same day registration.