Press Release
“Move Oregon’s Border” begins collecting signatures in Curry County, threatens to take county clerks
to court
A group called “Move Oregon’s Border” has begun signature collection in Curry County to make southern
Oregon, and the rest of rural Oregon, a part of Idaho. Their petition was approved for circulation by the
Curry County Clerk on April 20 and is now available for download at www.GreaterIdaho.org The
movement needs to collect only 692 valid signatures from Curry County voters by August 5 to put their
initiative on the ballot in the county.
The president of that group, Mike McCarter, said “We recently applied in most of the counties of rural
Oregon. Eight counties have accepted one of our applications, and six counties have rejected all of them.
We are still waiting to hear from some counties, but we already know we’ll have approval to circulate
petitions in at least three more counties in a couple weeks. All of our applications have been rejected in
Jefferson, Union, Baker, Wheeler, Gilliam, and Crook counties, so we are preparing to challenge the
decisions of county clerks in court. ”
The movement is not filing a statewide petition in 2020, so only voters of certain counties may sign one
of the movement’s petitions. So far, their petitions are available on their website GreaterIdaho.org for
signing by active registered voters in these five counties: Curry, Douglas, Josephine, Grant, and Umatilla.
Mike McCarter said “Despite the lockdown, you can still download and print a petition
from GreaterIdaho.org or pick one up at an essential business that has them.”
Mike McCarter, leader of the “move Oregon’s border for a greater Idaho” movement said, “Our
movement is not dependent on petitions. We are asking the movement in every rural Oregon county to
put an equal effort into the parallel strategy of asking their county commissioners to ‘refer’ an advisory
question to the November ballot in their county. If a county court or a county board refers it to the ballot,
we don’t have to collect any signatures, and they get to let their voters decide. This is the question that
they can put on the ballot: ‘Should county commissioners advocate for the Idaho border to be relocated
to make this county a county of Idaho?’”
In response to COVID-19, Mike McCarter said, “Why did our state government synchronize with California
and Washington, which have a much higher incidence of COVID-19 than Oregon, rather than Idaho, whose
incidence of COVID-19 is comparable to Oregon’s? Idaho Governor Brad Little has already announced
that non-essential businesses that practice social distancing may reopen after April 30. I challenge
Governor Kate Brown to meet this deadline, at least for rural Oregon counties. Why is rural Oregon still
locked down the same as Willamette Valley, when we have four counties without a single case of the
virus? In rural Oregon counties, many of us don’t make a living from a home office. In fact some of us
don’t have access to the internet, or even a local cell tower. And many of us can’t last all Spring without
an income.”
McCarter continued, “One of the most precious and costly lessons of European history is that civil
government and church government should be separate governmental structures. We call on Governor
Brown to let churches make their own decisions, just like churches allow civil government to make its own
decisions. Whether to meet, and whether to practice Holy Communion is not a decision the governor is
authorized to make by Oregon law, the Oregon Constitution, or the US Constitution.”
McCarter said “The penalties threatened by Kate Brown’s executive orders are only the penalties of ORS
401.990. That law does not give the governor much of the authorities she claims in her executive order.
It does not give her the authority to close businesses. While it allows her to ignore existing state of Oregon
agency rules, it doesn’t give her the authority to create new law. It gives her authority to reduce or stop
traffic on roads, but it doesn’t give her the authority to tell people how far apart they have to be.”
A Move Oregon’s Border petition may be picked up at these essential businesses:
Hermiston: Delish Bistro, 1725 N 1st St, Ste E, Hermiston 11am-8pm Tues-Sa
Roseburg: The Roseburg Beacon 950 S.E. Washington Avenue (business hours)
Myrtle Creek: Nick’s Dollar Mart 101 N Old Pacific Hwy open 4am-11pm
Wilbur: Whit-Log Trailers 8127 Old Hwy 99 North, Roseburg Mon-Fri: 7:30 am -5;30 pm Sat: 8 amNoon
Mike McCarter,
Leader, “Move Oregon’s border for a greater Idaho” movement
President, Move Oregon’s Border 501(c)(4), P.O. Box 1294, La Pine, Oregon, 97739
For earlier press releases, visit www.GreaterIdaho.org
Please read our FAQ here: www.greateridaho.org/the_downloads/2020/main/FAQ.pdf
And our main document
here: www.greateridaho.org/the_downloads/2019/main/Greater_Idaho_Proposal.pdf
For hi-res images for publication, email CascadeCarry@Outlook.com
The main Facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/GreaterIdaho
If your business or office would like to be announced as a signing location in rural Oregon, where people
can pick up and drop off petitions, contact Move Oregon’s Border. If you don’t have a business, please
find one that would be willing to do this.
If you don’t know any Grant, Umatilla, Josephine or Douglas County voters, please be patient and wait
for your own county’s petition to be released. If we have your email address and county name, we will
email you when it’s ready. We post a county’s petition to the website as soon as it is approved for
circulation