Oregon’s local ballot measures seek voter input on psilocybin businesses, wind energy, STAR voting

By Julia Shumway, Oregon Capital Chronicle

PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Four years after Oregon voters approved the regulated use of psilocybin mushrooms and more than a year after the first patients began using them, more than a dozen Oregon cities will ask voters whether to ban psilocybin businesses in Tuesday's election.

The anti-psilocybin ballot measures from 16 cities and unincorporated Clackamas County are among more than 100 local issues voters will see on their ballots.

Voters throughout the state will also decide whether to pay more in property taxes to fund local needs like schools, parks and roads. Voters in a small Lane County city will decide whether to adopt a new voting system. And two Eastern Oregon counties will decide whether to ditch scheduled talks about moving the Oregon-Idaho border.

Cities ask voters to ban mushrooms

In 2020, voters passed Measure 109 with nearly 56% of the vote, directing the Oregon Health Authority to create a program that would allow licensed service providers to administer psilocybin mushrooms and fungi products to people 21 or older. 

Like recreational marijuana, which Oregon voters legalized in 2014, psilocybin is illegal at the federal level. Unlike marijuana, which is sold in dispensaries and consumed at home, psilocybin can only be bought and used at a state-licensed clinic under the supervision of a facilitator and typically costs hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Sixteen cities and unincorporated Clackamas County will ask voters whether to ban psilocybin businesses, either permanently or temporarily. Some, including Sheridan, already opted out of the program temporarily in 2022, when a dozen cities passed measures banning psilocybin. 

Dozens of Oregon cities and counties banned marijuana production and sales after voters statewide legalized the drug in 2014. Redmond, one of those cities, is letting voters weigh in again on whether they want to allow the drug to be sold in the city. It’s also asking voters to approve a two-year moratorium on psilocybin. 

Greater Idaho

Two Eastern Oregon counties are seeking to end or reduce the regularly scheduled discussions they have to have about moving the Oregon-Idaho border to the west. Malheur County and Baker County voters both opted in 2021 to require their county officials to meet three times a year to discuss moving the state border — on the second Wednesday of March, July and November in Baker County and on the second Monday in January, May and September in Malheur County.

But those meetings are sparsely attended, and county officials are powerless to move state borders. That would take approval from the Oregon and Idaho legislatures and Congress, and while Idaho lawmakers have introduced bills supporting the effort, the Oregon Legislature and Congress have shown no interest. 

The Baker County ballot measure would give its board of county commissioners discretion to schedule discussions of moving the border at times it determines necessary, while the Malheur County measure would entirely repeal the requirement that its board meet to discuss moving the Idaho border.

So far, 13 counties in eastern Oregon have expressed support for moving the Idaho border, with voters in 10 counties directing their local officials to meet regularly and voters in three counties simply indicating they support the idea. 

Coastal counties weigh offshore wind

Coos and Curry counties are seeking voter input on federal plans, now on hold, to produce wind energy off the Oregon coast. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management had been moving ahead with plans to auction sites despite fierce opposition from Oregon’s coastal communities, seafood industry and tribes until Gov. Tina Kotek withdrew the state from an intergovernmental task force in September. 

Now, state officials have asked concerned Oregonians to join meetings and share feedback. The scheduled votes in Coos and Curry counties are non-binding advisory votes, a way for voters to tell their elected officials how they feel about the issue of offshore wind. 

Government changes

Other jurisdictions are looking at changing the way their government operates and how voters choose their representatives. 

The roughly 2,300 voters in the small Lane County city of Oakridge will decide whether they want to test STAR voting, which stands for “score then automatic runoff.” Eugene voters rejected a similar proposal in the May election, and an effort to enact it statewide by ballot initiative fizzled. Instead, voters across Oregon will decide in November whether they want to adopt ranked choice voting for statewide and federal elections. 

Under STAR voting, voters have the option to give every candidate between 0 and 5 stars. Vote-counters would then tally up the total number of stars each candidate received and move the two candidates with the most stars to an automatic runoff. Each voter’s individual vote would be awarded to the candidate they gave the most stars, and the candidate with support from the highest number of voters would win. 

The Oakridge measure calls for using STAR voting as a pilot program in the 2026, 2028 and 2030 election cycles, then asking voters to decide whether to amend the city’s charter to make the change permanent. 

And in Deschutes County, which in 2022 overwhelmingly decided to switch from electing its county commissioners on partisan ballots to nonpartisan ballots, voters will decide whether to expand the commission from three seats to five. Oregon’s four largest counties — Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Lane — have five commissioners, while most of the remaining counties have three. Some small rural counties have a county court, with a county judge chairing their board of commissioners.