Submitted by Chetly Zarko (not verified) on April 9, 2008 - 1:29pm.
Joe,
My understanding is that Ok is a non-rolling 90 gathering period. You start when the state says you can (after approving the petition form) and end 90 days later.
Additionally, OK has one of the few pure residency requires, and enforces it viciously (and I believe unconstitutionally in violation of the First Amendment). During Connerly's drive - just days after or before it started - the Attorney General arrested 3 other petition managers from a different firm and different cause for allegedly "conspiring to defraud the state" by hiring non-Oklahomans in an anti-tax drive TWO YEARS earlier. Now known as the "Oklahoma 3", and including man behind Term-Limits in the 1990s - Paul Jacob - they are going through a criminal trial that could put them in jail for 10 years. Jacob denies that they knowingly hired non-residents and that they complied with a definition of residence the Sec. of State gave them -- but I deny that the law itself is moral or Constitutional and don't even need to get to the factual parts of Jacob's defense. Putting people in jail for petitioning - whether in-state or out of it - is an abomination. It's only purpose - to send a message to petitioners to stop them in the future.
Speak about chilling effects. So Connerly's petition firm crossed its ts and dotted i's on residency, and individuals collecting, even residents, felt the chilling effect knowing that they could land in jail for the slightest misstep.
I don't doubt that the petition firm probably could have done some things better, but we all learn those things in hindsight for any endeavor. The big reason for failure here was the Jacob 3.
Note - I'm a former consultant for the Michigan effort, although I have no relationship to the Oklahoma drive and do not currently work for Ward or any of the state initiatives he is helping.
Attorney General Repression in OK
Joe,
My understanding is that Ok is a non-rolling 90 gathering period. You start when the state says you can (after approving the petition form) and end 90 days later.
Additionally, OK has one of the few pure residency requires, and enforces it viciously (and I believe unconstitutionally in violation of the First Amendment). During Connerly's drive - just days after or before it started - the Attorney General arrested 3 other petition managers from a different firm and different cause for allegedly "conspiring to defraud the state" by hiring non-Oklahomans in an anti-tax drive TWO YEARS earlier. Now known as the "Oklahoma 3", and including man behind Term-Limits in the 1990s - Paul Jacob - they are going through a criminal trial that could put them in jail for 10 years. Jacob denies that they knowingly hired non-residents and that they complied with a definition of residence the Sec. of State gave them -- but I deny that the law itself is moral or Constitutional and don't even need to get to the factual parts of Jacob's defense. Putting people in jail for petitioning - whether in-state or out of it - is an abomination. It's only purpose - to send a message to petitioners to stop them in the future.
Speak about chilling effects. So Connerly's petition firm crossed its ts and dotted i's on residency, and individuals collecting, even residents, felt the chilling effect knowing that they could land in jail for the slightest misstep.
I don't doubt that the petition firm probably could have done some things better, but we all learn those things in hindsight for any endeavor. The big reason for failure here was the Jacob 3.
Note - I'm a former consultant for the Michigan effort, although I have no relationship to the Oklahoma drive and do not currently work for Ward or any of the state initiatives he is helping.