Secret Message Hiding In This Year’s Oregon Voting Pamphlet

Every presidential election season is particularly stressful, and this year I'm ready for it to be over with already. There's too much conspiracy going on for me to keep any of my strings straight on the corkboard.

via GIPHY

Apparently, though, Oregon hasn't had enough mystery spice - because clever voters reading through their state Voters' Pamphlet have discovered a hidden message within the pages, placed there by an organization in support of one of the measures on the ballot this year.

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The measure in controversy is Measure 119, which proposes that "Cannabis retailers/processors must remain neutral regarding communications to their employees from labor organizations." It essentially requires a signed "peace agreement" regarding unionization from employers in the cannabis industry. You can read more about it on Ballotpedia.

Within the arguments for Measure 119 is a statement from Michael Selvaggio, on behalf of UFCW Local 555. It reads:

The first word, hmm? What does that end up being...

Never Going To Give You Up Never Going To Let You Down

.... Friends, we got Rick Roll'd.

The "Rick Roll" has been around since the 2000's, as a bait-and-switch tactic. At the time, link previews were yet to be adopted, and so you had to blindly trust the link you were clicking on. Internet trolls landed on "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, and almost two decades later, we still haven't looked back.

As a millennial, I was shaped by the aughts internet - Homestar Runner, Spongmonkeys, Boom Goes the Dynamite, rage comics - the list goes ever on. Sadly a lot of these memes have been forgotten except by those who lived through them, but some still live on. It's nice to see the meme finding new ways to troll people all over again.

And hey, thanks Oregon - for a conspiracy on the ballot I actually understand.