6 October 2014
Ms. Terri Turi
Coos County Clerk
coosclerk@co.coos.or.us
elections@co.coos.or.us
IN RE: DECLARATION OF INTENT
Dear Ms. Turi:
This message is intended to notify the county clerk that I am a declared write - in candidate for the November 2014 election and for the position of Coos Bay Mayor. I understand that all write in votes for Coos Bay mayor and council candidates will be counted by your staff, recorded and reported to the public. I meet the age, residence and registered voter requirements of a candidate for mayor. I am registered as James Kirby; I use the third of my three middle names, Fred. It is expected that all votes for mayor and council write in candidates will be counted where the intent of the voter can reasonably be determined from inspection of the ballot even if the voter omits the write in candidate’s first name, or writes a variation of the candidates first or last name, or where the voter fails to complete the vote indicator next to a write in space.
Sincerely,
Fred Kirby
Coos Bay, Oregon
Ms. Terri Turi
Coos County Clerk
coosclerk@co.coos.or.us
elections@co.coos.or.us
IN RE: DECLARATION OF INTENT
Dear Ms. Turi:
This message is intended to notify the county clerk that I am a declared write - in candidate for the November 2014 election and for the position of Coos Bay Mayor. I understand that all write in votes for Coos Bay mayor and council candidates will be counted by your staff, recorded and reported to the public. I meet the age, residence and registered voter requirements of a candidate for mayor. I am registered as James Kirby; I use the third of my three middle names, Fred. It is expected that all votes for mayor and council write in candidates will be counted where the intent of the voter can reasonably be determined from inspection of the ballot even if the voter omits the write in candidate’s first name, or writes a variation of the candidates first or last name, or where the voter fails to complete the vote indicator next to a write in space.
Sincerely,
Fred Kirby
Coos Bay, Oregon
6 October 2014
Dear friends:
It appears that at least two citizens will undertake a write in campaign for Coos Bay city council. I have decided to follow their lead and I have formally declared that I am a write - in candidate for mayor. Please visit web site www.fredkirby.com for reasons why I believe that change is required? There isn’t time for meet and greet; so the web site content is lengthy to give folks a reason to support or reject me. I would appreciate your forwarding this message to your Coos Bay family, friends, neighbors, followers, listeners, readers, and bloggers alerting them that they can express their choice by writing in FRED KIRBY for mayor. At least one write in council candidate will win. I realize that my chance of winning as a write in candidate for mayor may be less than the possibility of winning the Powerball jackpot. I will be happy with two votes knowing that I offer the people a choice.
The World and Register Guard editorial boards are correct; voters deserve a choice. Incumbents should defend their record during the election campaign; providing the people with sound reasons why they should be reelected. In Coos Bay, the incumbent mayor and three incumbent council members are currently unopposed. No candidate filed for the open fourth council position. There are many reasons to cast a ballot in November; “recreational” marijuana, genetically modified foods labeling, Gurney vs Sweet, a proposed county charter, and more. Hopefully the write in candidates will give citizens of Coos Bay another reason to vote. Thank you.
Fred
Dear friends:
It appears that at least two citizens will undertake a write in campaign for Coos Bay city council. I have decided to follow their lead and I have formally declared that I am a write - in candidate for mayor. Please visit web site www.fredkirby.com for reasons why I believe that change is required? There isn’t time for meet and greet; so the web site content is lengthy to give folks a reason to support or reject me. I would appreciate your forwarding this message to your Coos Bay family, friends, neighbors, followers, listeners, readers, and bloggers alerting them that they can express their choice by writing in FRED KIRBY for mayor. At least one write in council candidate will win. I realize that my chance of winning as a write in candidate for mayor may be less than the possibility of winning the Powerball jackpot. I will be happy with two votes knowing that I offer the people a choice.
The World and Register Guard editorial boards are correct; voters deserve a choice. Incumbents should defend their record during the election campaign; providing the people with sound reasons why they should be reelected. In Coos Bay, the incumbent mayor and three incumbent council members are currently unopposed. No candidate filed for the open fourth council position. There are many reasons to cast a ballot in November; “recreational” marijuana, genetically modified foods labeling, Gurney vs Sweet, a proposed county charter, and more. Hopefully the write in candidates will give citizens of Coos Bay another reason to vote. Thank you.
Fred
From Coos County Clerk, Terri Turri
Good morning, Mr. Kirby:
Congratulations on your decision to run a write-in campaign for the position of Mayor for the City of Coos Bay, and thank you for your email this morning. Declaration of Intent to run as a write-in for this office is not a requirement in Oregon elections, although I thank you for sending this message as this will give me an opportunity to clarify a few points you made.
Your “understanding that all write-in votes for Coos Bay mayor and council candidates will be counted by my staff” is partially correct. While every write-in vote is counted by the vote tally machine, the individual abstracting of those votes may not necessarily happen. I have included Oregon Revised Statute 254.500 which addresses the issue:
254.500 Tally of write-in votes. (1) This section governs the tally of votes cast for persons whose names were not printed on the ballot but are written in by electors. All such write-in votes for each office on the ballot shall be tallied together, except as follows:
(a) If the total number of write-in votes for candidates for the same nomination or office equals or exceeds the number of votes cast for any candidate for the same nomination or office on the ballot who appears to have been nominated or elected, the county clerk shall tally all write-in votes cast for the office to show the total number of votes cast for each write-in candidate.
(b) If no names of candidates are printed on the ballot for an office, the county clerk shall tally the votes cast for each candidate for the office who received a vote.
(2) No person other than the county clerk, a member of a counting board or any other elections official designated by the county clerk may tally write-in votes.
My office will be abstracting the write-in votes for a fourth position for the City Councilor contest for the City of Coos Bay. This is a process required by Oregon Administrative Rule 165-007-0030. Within this rule is a section describing the general procedures for processing write-in votes on ballots which includes the following regarding the spelling of write-in candidate’s names:
Write-In Processing
1. If it can be ascertained from the ballot for whom the vote was intended it should be counted.
Ò Election Boards shall disregard misspelling or abbreviations of the names of candidates if it can be ascertained from the ballot for which the vote was intended.
Ò This does not allow for counting write-in names consisting of initials, as an initial can stand for any number of names. For example, Bob Smith and Robert Smith might be tallied together. R Smith should not be added into either Bob or Robert but should instead be tallied on its own.
I hope this information is helpful to you as a write-in candidate and as a voter in Oregon. I would also encourage you to read the laws and rules that determine campaign finance requirements. You can find this important information at the Oregon Secretary of State’s website at http://sos.oregon.gov/elections/Documents/campaign-finance.pdf.
Should you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know. And as you know, you are most welcome at any time to come into the Election office to observe any or all parts of the election process. We are very proud of the work that we do for our citizens in Coos County!
Respectfully,
Terri Turi, CCC
Coos County Clerk
From: fred kirby [mailto:fredekirby@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2014 12:20 AM
To: Terri Turi; Elections
Cc: koosnews@myearthnet.net; Rob Taylor; Mary Geddry
Subject: Notice of Intent
Dear Ms. Turi:
Notice of intent to be a write in candidate is attached.
Sincerely,
Fred Kirby
Congratulations on your decision to run a write-in campaign for the position of Mayor for the City of Coos Bay, and thank you for your email this morning. Declaration of Intent to run as a write-in for this office is not a requirement in Oregon elections, although I thank you for sending this message as this will give me an opportunity to clarify a few points you made.
Your “understanding that all write-in votes for Coos Bay mayor and council candidates will be counted by my staff” is partially correct. While every write-in vote is counted by the vote tally machine, the individual abstracting of those votes may not necessarily happen. I have included Oregon Revised Statute 254.500 which addresses the issue:
254.500 Tally of write-in votes. (1) This section governs the tally of votes cast for persons whose names were not printed on the ballot but are written in by electors. All such write-in votes for each office on the ballot shall be tallied together, except as follows:
(a) If the total number of write-in votes for candidates for the same nomination or office equals or exceeds the number of votes cast for any candidate for the same nomination or office on the ballot who appears to have been nominated or elected, the county clerk shall tally all write-in votes cast for the office to show the total number of votes cast for each write-in candidate.
(b) If no names of candidates are printed on the ballot for an office, the county clerk shall tally the votes cast for each candidate for the office who received a vote.
(2) No person other than the county clerk, a member of a counting board or any other elections official designated by the county clerk may tally write-in votes.
My office will be abstracting the write-in votes for a fourth position for the City Councilor contest for the City of Coos Bay. This is a process required by Oregon Administrative Rule 165-007-0030. Within this rule is a section describing the general procedures for processing write-in votes on ballots which includes the following regarding the spelling of write-in candidate’s names:
Write-In Processing
1. If it can be ascertained from the ballot for whom the vote was intended it should be counted.
Ò Election Boards shall disregard misspelling or abbreviations of the names of candidates if it can be ascertained from the ballot for which the vote was intended.
Ò This does not allow for counting write-in names consisting of initials, as an initial can stand for any number of names. For example, Bob Smith and Robert Smith might be tallied together. R Smith should not be added into either Bob or Robert but should instead be tallied on its own.
I hope this information is helpful to you as a write-in candidate and as a voter in Oregon. I would also encourage you to read the laws and rules that determine campaign finance requirements. You can find this important information at the Oregon Secretary of State’s website at http://sos.oregon.gov/elections/Documents/campaign-finance.pdf.
Should you have any further questions or concerns, please let me know. And as you know, you are most welcome at any time to come into the Election office to observe any or all parts of the election process. We are very proud of the work that we do for our citizens in Coos County!
Respectfully,
Terri Turi, CCC
Coos County Clerk
From: fred kirby [mailto:fredekirby@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2014 12:20 AM
To: Terri Turi; Elections
Cc: koosnews@myearthnet.net; Rob Taylor; Mary Geddry
Subject: Notice of Intent
Dear Ms. Turi:
Notice of intent to be a write in candidate is attached.
Sincerely,
Fred Kirby
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