LA PINE — Douglas County has joined three other counties in approving a petition for the November ballot that would direct its county commissioners to investigate the possibility of making the county part of Idaho, according to a press release.

Douglas County joins Wallowa, Union and Jefferson counties in asking its voters to direct the county commissioners to meet regularly to consider the effects on the counties of becoming a part of Idaho.

Mike McCarter, of La Pine, the president of Move Oregon’s Border for a Greater Idaho, said in the release that the commissioners of Douglas County voted Aug. 19 to put the border question on the November ballot.

“We appreciate the amount of effort Douglas County citizens have gone through to sign petitions to get the Move Oregon’s Border issue on the Nov. 3 ballot,” Douglas County Commissioner Tim Freeman told Move Oregon’s Border. “Citizens should have the opportunity to vote on this issue and that is why we moved to place this advisory question on the ballot.”

McCarter, president of Move Oregon’s Border, said the group had been only 30 signatures short of the required 2,955 signatures needed to put an initiative on the ballot in Douglas County on the Aug. 5 deadline for the general election. He said MOB will continue to collect signatures for May 2021 in that county and 11 others.

“Let the people decide which state government is more suited to their county’s economy and values,” McCarter said. “Rural Oregon’s concerns are trampled on in Salem. We call on citizens to ask their county commissioners about this.”

He said MOB is still collecting signatures in 12 counties for the next election. If counties approve the measures, it would then have to be approved by the Oregon and Idaho legislatures and Congress.