Oregon Judicial DEPARTMENT is now the Oregon Judicial BRANCH

Remember Measure 78 (2011 HJR 44) in the November 2012 election? No?

Here is the vote count: yes: 1,165,963 to no: 458,509 and here is a Measure 78 summary:

“Amends Constitution: Changes constitutional language describing governmental system of separation of powers; makes grammatical and spelling changes.

Result of “Yes” Vote: “Yes” vote modernizes constitutional language describing separation of poers to refer to three “branches” (instead of three “departments”) of government; makes other grammatical, spelling changes.

Summary: Amends constitution. Measure makes nonsubstantive changes to wording now contained in the Oregon constitution. Current state constitutional language describes the governmental separation of powers to be divided into three separate “departments”: Legislative, Executive (including Administrative), and Judicial. Measure modernizes this constitutional phrasing by changing it to refer to three separate “branches” of government, which conforms to more contemporary, commonly-used designations for these separate divisions of government. Measure changes the description of the two houses of the Legislature to two” chambers” of the Legislature (rather than two “branches” of the Legislature), which also reflects more modem designations for them. Measure additionally modernizes spelling and makes grammatical changes to replace existing references to the Secretary of State as “he,” “him,” and “his” with gender-neutral wording….”

You can see the full text of this measure at the Oregon Secretary of State, Elections Division, or at the Legislature’s website.