Electronic canvasser offers Oregon petitions without the pitch
By Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian
March 01, 2010, 7:48PM
Some day, we may see a robot chase a voter down the sidewalk, clutching a clipboard in its metal talons, as it chirps, “Sign this if you want to cut your taxes.”
For now, however, we have “Petey,” an ATM-style kiosk that may be the country’s first electronic canvasser.
Ross Day, a conservative political activist who also runs the petition firm Vote Oregon, developed Petey — short for “petitioner” — and proudly showed off the prototype outside his Beaverton office Tuesday.
Day, who got the idea when he saw the kiosk’s shell at a state government surplus sale, says he thinks robo-canvassers will eventually replace those ubiquitous initiative petitioners you see outside stores and at festivals.
“Obviously it’s cheaper,” Day says. “I don’t have to pay Petey, other than the power. … It also goes to the integrity of the process. Petey — at least I hope not — is not going to be forging any signatures or committing any other kind of fraud.”
Passers-by can use a touch screen to see the text of the three petitions Day’s firm is now circulating. And they can print out a copy of any of the petitions and then sign and deposit it in the attached mailbox.
The device takes advantage of a 2007 law that lets voters download a single-signature petition from the Internet and mail it back to sponsors. Before that, only signatures on petition sheets also signed by a canvasser were valid.
Ted Blaszak, president of Democracy Resources, which petitions for liberal causes, says the idea sounds both “interesting and gimmicky.” He wonders how many voters will sign a petition without talking it over with a real person.
“People are reluctant to sign away any information for something they are not very confident about, and a machine doesn’t really address this,” he said.
Still, online petitioning has started to pick up steam. Day, whose firm collected signatures to refer the tax measures to the Jan. 26 ballot, says that several thousand came from downloaded petitions.
Day says he hopes to build five or six more machines that he will move around the state, including in stores where merchants allow them.
Eventually, Petey will become more sophisticated, he says. Maybe, for example, it could show a short video touting the initiative. But he’s a long way from being able to send his new invention after a reluctant signer while it pleads, “Don’t you care about the children?”
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Comments
I was looking for the petition discussed on the Bill Post Radio Show recently. Could you help? Thanks!
Are you looking for the Independent Redistricting Amendment? You can find it here on the site: http://commonsensefororegon.org/measures/2010-circulating-petitions/
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