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Ballot issues yet to inspire voters Local measures need late push for decision to count From staff and wire reports Four local funding measures on Tuesday's election ballot still appear headed for defeat for lack of enough votes cast to validate the outcome, even if a majority of those voting vote yes. Under a state law approved by voters, money measures in most elections must attract more than 50 percent of votes cast, and at least 50 percent of registered voters must cast ballots. The most recent figures available Saturday showed countywide turnout stood at just 25 percent as of Friday. Jackson County voters are being asked to approve a $16.4 million bond for a new juvenile detention facility. In Ashland, where ballot measures ask voters to approve $5.96 million in bonds for library expansion and $3.14 million for a new fire station, turnout was 30.9 percent. The best turnout was in Shady Cove, where 43.3 percent of registered voters had returned ballots. Voters there are deciding the fate of a $7.5 million municipal water system. Jackson County clerk Kathy Beckett said experience with mail elections doesn't bode well for the countywide measures or the Ashland measures. "They're still a long ways" from 50 percent with election day looming, Beckett said. "They can still do it, don't get me wrong," but chances appear slim. Turnout in Jackson County was slightly better than the statewide figure, although no money measures appear on the statewide ballot. Mail ballots were trickling in for Tuesday's special election in which Oregonians are revoting on components of a 1996 measure that gave more rights to crime victims and more power to prosecutors. Despite the low-key nature of the election, the measures, taken together, represent a significant change in Oregon's criminal justice system. Among other things, Measures 69 through 75 spell out the rights of victims, allow murder convictions by an 11-1 jury verdict and prohibit the release of inmates before their terms end. Still, heading into the weekend, only 22 percent of registered voters had returned their mail-in ballots. That's about half of the turnout of the last special election two years ago. Portland pollster Tim Hibbitts sees several reasons for the low turnout. "The measures may be important, but they are not glamorous," Hibbitts said. Plus, he said, "voter interest in politics, issues and politicians is as low as I've seen it in 25 years of polling." Amy Cody of the Oregon secretary of state's office is looking for an uptick in voting between now and Tuesday night, the deadline for ballots to be turned in to election offices. Unlike the last special election in November 1997, a highly publicized affair in which voters reaffirmed Oregon's assisted suicide law, the seven crime measures on Tuesday's ballot are more technical in nature, Cody said. "Some of the issues are complicated," she said. "It takes a lot more research on the voters' part, so we might be seeing voters holding onto their ballots a little bit longer." The seven measures make up the guts of a single measure that was passed by the state's voters in 1996 but later was struck down as unconstitutional by the Oregon Supreme Court. The high court said there were too many proposed constitutional changes in one measure even though all were billed as dealing with rights of crime victims. This year's Oregon Legislature decided to send the measure back to voters in individual pieces to avoid a similar problem with the courts. State Rep. Kevin Mannix, one of the chief supporters of the measures, said it's been difficult to get voters to focus on Measures 69 through 75. "They are not sexy issues. Usually it takes big hot pocketbook issues on the ballot to get people's attention," the Salem Republican said. In their TV and radio ads, Mannix and other supporters say the measures will put victims on equal footing with criminals. "The message we are trying to get out to voters is that this is their chance to stand up for public safety and fight crime," Mannix said. Opponents, including Oregon's criminal defense lawyers, say that supporters of the measures have failed to make a case that prosecutors currently are at a disadvantage and need to be given more power. The chief spokeswoman for the campaign against the measures has been Arwen Bird, a 25-year-old Portland woman who was left paralyzed by a traffic wreck caused by a drunken driver. "These measures are not aimed at reducing crime or empowering crime victims. They are merely an expansion of the powers of the state," Bird said. Hibbitts believes that Mannix, Bird and other advocates on both sides of the issue will have their work cut out for them trying to gain voters' attention between now and Tuesday's voting deadline. "There's just not a lot on the ballot to draw out voters," the Portland pollster said. "People are not worried or fretful about crime." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA