LaPine, OR - Leaders of the Greater Idaho movement are asking the Governor of Oregon to sit down with them and talk about next steps for the 13 counties in eastern Oregon who have passed measures supporting exploring moving the Oregon/Idaho border.  The organization has reached out to the Governor's office with a formal invitation to meet, and offered to sit down with her at a time and place of her choosing.  The invitation comes on the heels of Crook County becoming the 13th county in the eastern part of the state to pass a measure supporting border relocation.  Several of the counties boards of commissioners have already sent letters to state leaders requesting action towards beginning border talks (those letters can be seen at https://greateridaho.org/more_info).

"The people of eastern Oregon have made their voices heard, loud and clear," said Matt McCaw, Executive Director of the movement.  "We believe the Governor owes it to the people she represents to sit down with our leadership team and discuss how we can all work together to get better governance for eastern Oregonians."

President of the movement, Mike McCarter, echoed those thoughts.  "Our organization, which is a grass-roots group of rural Oregonians, has been going directly to voters for 4 years to ask them what they want their elected leaders to do.  They've told us, and it's time those leaders started listening to the people and working towards the policy outcome they say they want."

The Greater Idaho movement began putting votes to counties in 2020 and seeks to move the Oregon/Idaho border westward so that the traditionally conservative eastern counties would join the state of Idaho, which the movement says better matches eastern Oregonian values.  The group believes that moving the border would create a win-win situation for both Oregon and Idaho by better matching voters to state governance and would lower political tension across the state.  State lines can be moved through a process called an insterstate compact.  The change would require the approval of both states' legislatures, as well as the US Congress.  In 2023 the Idaho house passed a Memorial resolution inviting the state of Oregon to begin border talks.