And referendum system that allows the public to play a lead role in writing laws and writing regulations and also in recalling elected officials. But here in oregon our ball lots are often very lengthy because not only do we vote on candidates but were voting on a series of initiatives and referendums for ideas for policy, for legislation. One of the most important ones that was passed back in 1912 was giving women the right to vote. One of the great oregonian stories is Abigail Scott do doneway. For more than half a century, she was fighting to give women the right to own property, fighting time and time again to give women the right to vote. Five times it went to the ballot and five times men voted it down and it wasnt until 1912 when women got the right to vote in oregon when the initiative and referendum voted for it. While abigail was doing all she could do give women to right to vote, one of the leading opponents was a fellow named harvey scott, abigails brother. Unfortunately for abigail, the editor of the oregonian, then as now the most influential and powerful newspaper in the state. And harvey would editorialize against giving the women the right to vote. He said women would get the right to vote over his dead body. He died in 1910 and they got the right to vote in 1912. I guess it all worked out for everybody. One of oregons great assets is the 326 miles of Pacific Ocean shoreline. Way back in 1913 governor oswald west, the first progressive governor here, declared all of the beaches to be private highways. Did not want Public Hotels and motels on the beaches. Fast forward to 1966 when a motel owner in cannon beach here on the north coast here in oregon, he tried to limit access to system of the beach to his hotel guests only. And to block the public in coming onto this area which is kind of from the sand line to the vegetation line. Governor tom mccaw who was then in office, 1967, he wanted to stop that. So very dramatically in may of 1967 he flew down by helicopter with the press there, landed on the beach, then went up to dramatically drew a line in the sand with a pole to say that this too was part of the public beach in his mind. Later on the legislature would endorse mccaws idea giving the governor power to declare more of the beachfront as public property where you could not build anything on it. Well in 2017 where we are now, Health Care Reform remains on top of the national agenda, on top of the national debate. You go back, return almost 30 years ago to 1989, the Health Care Reform debate was still going on and oregon became a National Leader with the passage of what was called the Health Services act which extended medicaid coverage to all oregon citizens below the federal Poverty Level and all citizen denied coverage because of preexisting conditions. It was a revolutionary idea back then, passed by the legislature, signed by the governor. One of the driving forces behind it was the physician who made Health Care Reform his signature accomplishment which would lead to him being elected as oregon governor. Many of the ideas that are still being put forward in the Health Care Debate were first implemented in the Oregon Health care plan in 1989 trying to get coverage for as many citizens as you could get. Theres still changes going back and forth with the health plan, improvements being made to make sure that its meeting its goals. But it remains a key part of oregons being, of who we are, the fact that the Oregon Health plan is here and we provide Decent Health care to oregonians regardless of the income. Perhaps one of the most controversial initiatives ever adopted by oregonians was what was called measure 16, which was adopted in 1994 known as death with dignity or assisted suicide. And what it does is it gives terminally ill oregonians the right to end their lives with lethal medications prescribed by their physician. Assisted suicide. Very much debated at the local level and at the National Level now as well. Supported by folks who lost a loved one, saw a loved one dying painfully with a terminal illness, opposed by the catholic church, by other religious organizations and by those who thought it was a slippery slope to adopt assisted suicide. 20 years later again its part of the oregon ethic, i think, part of the ethos here in oregon. Its still the law of the state. It was adopted by Washington State as well, our neighbor to the north. They have their assisted suicide law. And it remains debated here in oregon but generally accepted as a human part of oregons laws. As you might expect the law that oregon passed was quite controversial nationally. Congress tried to weigh in, tried to deny funds to oregon, or block this from happening in oregon. Eventually it reached the court, the Supreme Court which gave oregon the right to implement its own laws in this regard. Well if its election day in oregon and youre looking for a place to go vote, you wouldnt find one because back in 1998 overwhelming by a majority of 69 oregonians adopted vote by mail as the only way in which you can vote. There are no ballot places in Oregon Election day. Oregon has like a rolling twoweek election process. Most oregonians receive their ball lots in the mail two weeks before election day and youll got into election day then to vote on the ballot and to return it either by mailing it or dropping it off at a library or one of the many designated places. Thats the only way you can vote in oregon. All of the elections now, local, state, are conducted by vote by mail. Although other states have gone towards that area allowing early voting, allowing mail voting, absentee voting. And youve seen in the last election, you saw the massive number of people across the country who took advantage of early voting. Here in oregon there is no election day. You can only vote by mail. But its led to a dramatic change in strategy. If youre a candidate running for office in states where theres an actual election day, you want your commercials to be running, you know, close to election day. Here the big commercials run two weeks out when oregonians get their ballot. Campaigns study this that a vast majority of people vote immediately. Once the ballot is received, they cast their vote and mail in it. Its like a bell curve. And then theres another rush very last day. Some people like to hold out until the end and not vote until the last day. Part of the reason that the people vote early, campaign consist purchase lists of those who have and have not voted. If you vote early your name is off the list and youre not going to be pestered by calls from different campaigns. If you dont vote and you hold on to your ballot, then you may be getting lots of telephone calls. There are those who say that there are two oregons. There is the one oregon where the majority of the people live, the cities, portland, especially the suburbs, salem, eugene, the three big cities in oregon. And then there is rural oregon. Oregon is a huge state geographically. Most of the people live in very concentrated area in the valley and there are vast areas of the state where there are fewer people. And there are very big political differences between urban oregon and rural a oregon. But by and large most oregonians have accepted, not endorsed, the innovations that have happened here, like vote by mail, back part of the culture, death with dignity, whether youre a rural oregonian or urban oregonian, youre proud of what weve done to clean up oregons environment. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to portland, oregon to learn about its rich history. Learn more about portland and other stops on our tour at cspan. Org citiestour. Youre watching American History tv. All weekend every weekend on cspan3. So if you had visited monticello 20 years ago you would have come up the mountain and seen jeffersons villa. What we wanted to do was change that. We wante