Crook County officials are asking voters in May to weigh in on whether they want to become part of Idaho
Under advisory, non-binding measure, county would tell state, federal officials the county backs border shift
PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Crook County Clerk's Office has released the final ballot title of a non-binding, advisory measure about the long-debated Greater Idaho border-move proposal that will appear on the county’s May 21 primary ballot.
Measure 7-86, filed Tuesday, asks: "Should Crook County represent that its citizens support efforts to move the Idaho state border to include Crook County?"
The ballot summary states: "The Crook County Court has placed this advisory question on the ballot to determine voter attitudes of whether your Crook County elected officials should inform state and federal officials that the people of Crook County support continued negotiations regarding a potential relocation of the Oregon-Idaho border to include Crook County."
It's worded that way because it would take action by the state Legislature and Congress to make such a move happen, and there's no sign that would happen any time soon.
According to supporters, the Greater Idaho issue has a perfect record in the 12 counties of Eastern Oregon that have voted on the issue so far, and the proposal only affects 14 full counties. The question that will be posed to Crook County voters is similar to questions approved by Wheeler County and Sherman County voters in 2022 and 2021.
"Crook County is expected to vote in favor," the organization stated. "Although moving a state line is not, strictly speaking, a partisan issue, in 2022 Crook County only voted 16% in favor of the current governor of Oregon, and 74% in favor of the governing party of Idaho."
Although the Idaho House of Representatives passed a resolution one year ago inviting the Oregon Legislature to begin talks on relocating the state line and Oregon GOP lawmakers have responded, Oregon Democrats have ignored the invitation, the group says. "Neither the Governor of Oregon nor the President of the Oregon Senate has agreed to speak with leaders of the movement."
The Greater Idaho movement said it "believes that state leaders should want to let Eastern Oregon join Idaho because it would benefit Oregon’s state budget, and because eastern Oregon voters seem intent on continuing to elect state lawmakers who will block votes in the Oregon Legislature," according to their website greateridaho.org.
