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James Conner (left) and his dad Don Conner, both of Portland, attended a political rally in at the Rose Garden in 2010. At the time, they said they were nonaffiliated voters -- or independents with a little "i." Now the Independent Party of Oregon says it has enough members to qualify as a major party in the state.

(Benjamin Brink | The Oregonian/OregonLive)

The Independent Party of Oregon says it now has enough registered voters -- nearly 109,000 -- to become the state's third major party, along with the Democratic and Republican parties.

With major-party status, the Independent Party would have its primary election run by the state. But it also means that candidates listed on the primary ballot would have to be registered with the Independent Party -- a provision of law that the party believes violates its constitutional rights, according to Sal Peralta, the party's secretary.

Peralta said Monday that the Independent Party would be the only party besides the Democratic and Republican parties to achieve major status since the state adopted its current primary system in the late 1800s.

"I am very happy about it because it means we no longer have to conduct our own elections," Peralta said. Most minor parties in Oregon nominate their candidates at meetings held by party activists. The Independent Party, however, has run primaries using the internet and mailed ballots.

Tony Green, a spokesman for Secretary of State Kate Brown, said elections officials are studying the law to see if the Independent Party has indeed achieved the status of a major party and how the secretary of state will proceed.

Under Oregon law, a political party achieves majority party status if its registration equals 5 percent of those registered for the last gubernatorial election. Peralta said he learned Monday that the party now has 108,744 registrants, just a few voters over the 5 percent threshold. A total of 2,174,763 voters were registered in the last election.

Peralta said the party might not be able to hold its major-party status past the 2016 election. That's because there's strong support among Democratic legislators for a bill sponsored by Secretary of State Kate Brown that would automatically allow the state to register voters using driver license data.

The new registrants would be given the chance to opt out of registration or to register in a party. But if they don't respond, they will be registered as unaffiliated voters. With a big surge of new voters, that could drop the Independent Party below the threshold for 2018, he said.

-- Jeff Mapes

503-221-8209

@Jeffmapes