Ed Bickford's blog

Measure 53 was approved in the May Primary by a margin of 550 out of 978,634 votes; that's less than 0.06% of the total. The Director of Elections has filed an Official Notice of Automatic Recount. Their schedule has all counties finishing the recount by June 26th.

Measure 53 is the latest installment in the continuing saga of civil forfeiture law since the passage of Ballot Measure 3, The Oregon Property Protection Act in 2000. It was originally done with good intent, in response to reports of law enforcement agencies that abused their power of forfeiture as a cash cow. Although Oregon agencies were not accused of particular abuses, the capacity was demonstrated and the temptation to preferentially pursue lucrative prosecutions exists because of human nature. We have the right to require a high standard of fairness from law enforcement agencies.