The Constitution Party of Oregon has been fined $450 and its candidates could be kept off Oregon’s fall ballot because top party leaders only told each other, not rank-and-file members, about the nominating meetings they held this summer.

At those unpublicized meetings, held in May, June and July, members of the party’s steering committee nominated candidates for Congress, governor and the Legislature, including Jo Rae Perkins for U.S. Senate and Donice Smith for governor.

Steering committee members were the only people sent notices of the meetings, despite a state law requiring all members of minor parties to be notified well in advance. Statewide, 3,342 Oregonians are registered to vote as members of the Constitution Party.

The party can hold new, legal meetings to nominate candidates, elections officials ruled, but it must notify all party members at least 10 days in advance of any such meetings and it must turn in candidates nomination forms to the state elections office by Aug. 30.

Alma Whalen, elections manager in the Secretary of State’s Office, determined party Chair Jack Brown Jr. of Grants Pass and other top party leaders broke state law by holding the nominating meetings without having sent any notice to party members since 2020.