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As with the federal government, states have their own impeachment processes to remove officials found guilty of high crimes or abuse of their offices. Oregon is the lone state with no process for impeaching state officials — at least, for now.
This November, voters will have a chance to add an impeachment process to the Oregon Legislature for the first time in state history. If approved, Measure 115 would allow the Legislature to impeach and remove multiple state officials: the governor, secretary of state, attorney general, state treasurer, and commissioner of labor and industries.
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If approved by the voters, impeachment in Oregon would look similar to the federal government’s process, with a few key differences. Whereas the U.S. House of Representatives requires a simple majority to impeach, Oregon would require approval from two-thirds of the House, 40 votes total.
The House would vote to impeach the official, after which a trial would be conducted in the Senate to possibly convict and remove them from office, again by a two-thirds majority.
Empty seats await lawmakers in the Oregon House Chamber on April 30, 2019, in Salem, Ore.
Laurie Isola / OPB
Measure 115 will go to the ballot after years of legislators trying to take the issue of impeachment to the voters. There were attempts in 2015 and 2017, but both failed.
Legislators finally succeeded with the passing of House Joint Resolution 16 in 2023, which received near-unanimous bipartisan support.
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Oregon Speaker of the House Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, was one of the chief sponsors for HJR 16. She said while previous efforts to introduce impeachment failed, this resolution succeeded because it increases the bar to impeach.
“I feel confident that we have appropriately defined the terms of impeachment and set a threshold that will help prevent this process from being unnecessarily politicized,” Fahey said.
There are no organized campaigns against Measure 115. In past years, legislators have argued against it because Oregon already has a recall process.
In the past, most state officials facing accusations of abusing their office have resigned. Secretary of State Shemia Fagan resigned last year, after it came to light she consulted for a cannabis company as her office was auditing Oregon’s cannabis industry. Former Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned in 2015 following accusations of influence peddling.
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It’s unclear why Oregon has never had an impeachment clause in its constitution. The state has long had a recall process, which can be a time-consuming and expensive process. Signatures from 15% of all voters in the previous election must be collected before a recall election is held.
In recent years, Republicans attempted to recall former Gov. Kate Brown five separate times but weren’t able to collect enough signatures.
Fahey said impeachment, if added to the state constitution, should be used rarely for serious breaches of state law.
“Impeachment overrules the will of the voters, and so it is a very serious process for us to go through as a legislature and we wanted to make that clear when we passed the final version,” Fahey said.