The Lane County Commission voted 3-2 on August 6 to place several amendments to the Lane County Charter from a private law firm on the Nov. 5 ballot — amendments the Lane County clerk is calling a “risk to election integrity” and others, including two county commissioners, are calling gerrymandering.
Commissioners David Loveall, Pat Farr and Ryan Ceniga voted in favor of the private law firm’s suggestions, with Commissioners Heather Buch and Laurie Trieger dissenting.
The Home Rule Charter operates as the county’s constitution and governs how it can and can’t operate. The charter can only be amended by a public vote.
The current ballot title reads: “Amendment Of Lane Charter To Revise Subsections Governing Redistricting.”
Dan Isaacson, a local businessman, filed a petition with Lane County Circuit Court on August 16 recommending the ballot title be changed to “Amends Charter, Revises Timeline, Process For County Redistricting. Adds Costs.”
The county’s proposal calls for a 2025 mid-cycle redistricting — outside the normal 10-year cycle. “Introducing tasks outside the normal scope of election management within the proposed timeline poses significant risks to the integrity of elections in Lane County,” Dena Dawson, Lane County clerk, wrote in a letter to the board on July 25.
A 2025 redistricting cycle would coincide with the Oregon Secretary of State’s efforts to implement new election management and voter registration statewide, alongside a possibility of the state’s first round of ranked-choice voting.
Isaacson says the current ballot title is intentional obfuscation. The county commission “is going to have to argue why telling the voters that there is an additional cost here is not something that they should be notified about,” he says.
It will cost $75,000 just to put the amendments on the ballot, Lane County Chief of Staff Judy Williams said at a June 26 public hearing.
Isaacson’s petition can only modify the ballot title. A circuit judge will decide whether or not to modify it. The date to hear oral arguments is still to be set.
However, on Tuesday, August 20, Isaacson says he met with Assistant County Counsel Steven Thiel, who said that they could meet at a later date to draft a ballot title they could both agree on.
Isaacson says that fast-tracked redistricting will cement a conservative majority on the board — a board that is supposed to be non-partisan. “That seems like gerrymandering to me,” he says.
On July 16, the Lane County Board of Commissioners voted down its own committee’s amendments, instead voting to include a proposal from private law firm Harrang Long.
Harrang Long’s proposal required a new district map be drawn by 2026 — four years before the next census in 2030. “I think it’s a rushed process that hasn’t survived the normal scrutiny,” Isaacson says. “And because of that, you really have to question the motives of why now?”
Buch and Trieger both say that the reason Farr, Loveall and Ceniga are trying to ram this through is to impact the 2026 election — when Loveall, Ceniga and Buch are up for re-election.
“This is unnecessary and wholly politically motivated,” Trieger said during the July 16 commissioner meeting when the board voted down its own committee-sanctioned suggestions.
“It’s bullshit,” Isaacson says.
The ballot title will either be drafted by Isaacson and Thiel or decided by a circuit judge at a later date. It will then head to the Nov. 5 general election.
To read local ballot measures on the Nov. 5 ballot, go to LaneCounty.org/elections. To register to vote, go to SOS.Oregon.Gov
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