Petition to legalize cannabis sales in Hermiston falls short

A lead petitioner got more than enough signatures to trigger an election to reconsider legalizing cannabis sales in Hermiston, where it remains banned. Unfortunately for the nascent campaign, most of the signatures did not belong to Hermiston voters.

The Umatilla County Elections Division published a June 26 report showing that the petition did not have nearly enough valid signatures to move forward. The report states that more than 80% of the rejected signatures either did not belong to registered voters or were from voters who lived outside Hermiston.