Press Release
Signature gathering begins in Grant County Oregon, Move Oregon’s Border shifts strategy
The leader of the movement to move Oregon’s border to let rural Oregon become a part of Idaho announced
that signature collection has begun in Grant County, Oregon. Their petition was approved for circulation by the
Grant County Clerk on April 1 and is now available for download at www.GreaterIdaho.org
Although few people are collecting signatures in traditional ways because of social distancing, petitions can still
be downloaded or picked up at certain essential businesses, and then signed. The movement needs to collect
only 231 valid signatures to put their initiative on the ballot in Grant County. Mike McCarter said “The deadline
for our petition effort is August 5, so coronavirus is not enough to make us give up. You can still download and
print the petition from GreaterIdaho.org or pick one up at an essential business that has them.”
The movement is not filing a statewide petition in 2020, so only voters in certain counties may sign one of the
movement’s petitions. So far, their petitions are approved for signing by active registered voters in these
counties: Grant, Douglas, Josephine, and Umatilla.
The movement to “move Oregon’s border for a greater Idaho” announced that its prospective petitions have
been rejected by the county clerks of several counties, at the recommendation of the county counsel (lawyer) of
each county: Baker, Coos, Gilliam, Harney, Union, Wallowa, Wheeler. The county counsel letters recommending
rejection sometimes contradicted county counsel letters of other counties.
Because of the rejections and the Wuhan coronavirus, Mike McCarter, leader of the movement said, “We are
asking the movement in every rural Oregon county to put an equal effort into the parallel strategy of
encouraging voters to ask 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.
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?’”
McCarter criticized the state government’s executive order on carbon taxes of three weeks ago: “Increasing the
cost of transportation is a death knell for sparsely-populated areas. Oregon law is not designed for rural
communities like Idaho law is. Our counties are low-income, but they fit right in with Idaho. Oregon’s state
budget would be better off without our counties, and then Kate Brown will never have to worry about losing her
supermajority and her quorum.”
Move Oregon’s Border said that they’ve seen publicly voiced support for moving the border from state Senator
Dennis Linthicum, Senate minority leader Herman Baertschiger, and state representatives Werner Reschke, Gary
Leif, and Greg Smith.
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 am- Noon
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: http://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 know any Grant, Josephine, Umatilla, 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.