SALEM - After facing some crowded ballots in recent years, Oregon voters might be asked to decide on a relatively small number of ballot measures in November.

Election officials, watchdog groups and political activists say they detect less activity than usual by groups trying to place initiative measures on the ballot - though they don't agree on why.

It's still possible that several high-profile measures will land on the November ballot, including ones to limit medical malpractice damage awards and to reimpose term limits on state lawmakers.

The overall numbers are down, though.

The secretary of state's office says that of 149 proposed initiatives filed to date, 17 have been qualified for circulation by signature gatherers.

As of this time two years ago, 181 proposed initiatives had been filed and 31 of them were approved for circulation.

The union-backed initiative watchdog group known as the Voter Education Project said that so far it has detected active signature gathering efforts on behalf of just two measures:

- One, sponsored by the property rights group Oregonians in Action, would require compensation to landowners when government regulations decrease property value. Voters approved a similar measure in 2000, but it was thrown out by the courts on procedural grounds.

- The other, by proponents of Oregon's medical marijuana law, would make it easier for patients to qualify, increase the legal possession limit and create more places to get the drug.

Signature-gathering efforts reportedly are under way or soon will be for other measures. But it's clear that this November's ballot won't be nearly as lengthy as some in past years.

The recent highwater mark came in 2000, when Oregon voters were confronted with 26 measures on the fall ballot, more than any other state and the largest number on Oregon's ballot since 1914.

State Elections Director John Lindback thinks part of the reason for the lower number of initiatives this year is the sidelining of anti-tax activist Bill Sizemore by lawsuit troubles.

Sizemore, for years Oregon's leading sponsor of measures to cut taxes and limit government, is being sued by unions seeking to hold him personally responsible for fraud and racketeering convictions against his former organizations.

"Sizemore always generated lots of activity, but none of the active measures this year are his," Lindback said.

Some political activists said adverse court rulings have discouraged some people and groups from pursuing ballot measures in the state that is considered the birthplace of initiative petition.

In a September 2000 decision, the Oregon Supreme Court ruled that signature-gatherers had no right to circulate petitions inside shopping malls or on the property of big stores such as Fred Meyer.

And two weeks ago, a federal judge upheld a 2002 decision by Oregon voters to ban the previous practice of allowing initiative campaigns to pay petition carriers for each signature they collect.

Ross Day of Oregonians in Action, the group that's pushing the property compensation measure, said the ban has made it much more expensive to put initiatives on the ballot.

Initiative campaigns are more expensive now because paying petition carriers on an hourly basis - rather than by the signature - takes away incentive for those people to quickly gather signatures, Day said.

But a Portland political consultant who is working on the measure to limit "pain and suffering" awards in malpractice cases said he thinks a poor economy is largely to blame for the dearth of initiatives this year.

"Frankly, many of the interest groups lack the money right now to get measures on the ballot," Paul Phillips said.

Whatever the cause of the drop in initiative activity, political scientist Bill Lunch considers it a positive development for the state.

Lunch, a professor at Oregon State University, for years has been calling for changes in a system that he said has resulted in burned-out voters and the adoption of conflicting and expensive policies.

Requiring voters to sort through long ballots with often arcane ballot measures isn't a recipe for creating good government, he said.

"It's not some thing most people want to do or have time to do," Lunch said.