Signature Gatherers

UPDATED 4/16 WITH NEW FIGURES: This should be the first of what I hope will become a regular feature on the blog: reports on the opaque California signature market, with actual figures on how much initiative sponsors are paying gatherers for each signature they collect. The per-signature amount is crucial information -- but little known -- because it determines the priorities of the individual signature gatherers. You pay more, they'll put your petition on top of their clipboards. High signature prices, however, also can be a sign that an initiative is weak. Sponsors have to pay more because their initiative has little time to qualify or involves a complicated subject that is hard to explain in a grocery store parking lot.

Here's my rundown on per-signature costs gleaned from a weekend of talking with signature gatherers in Southern California. I'm not specifying exactly where I talked to gatherers to protect their anonymity. I'd like to do this not only for California but also for other states. I'd love to hear from signature gatherers around the country.

I'll be out of pocket the rest of Thursday--in transit...

Ralph Nader's challenge to an Arizona law prohibiting non-residents from collecting signatures on presidential petitions has been scheduled for an April 15 hearing before the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

RENEWABLE INITIATIVES: From a small paper in Missouri, a pretty good overview of renewable energy standards in different states, with some attention to those states that have imposed these by ballot initiative.

STILL NOTHING FROM  COLORADO MEETING: Rocky Mountain News says the governor's attempt to head off labor-business initiative war didn't go well. And here's more evidence that the ill will is building.

SAN DIEGO PORT: Opposition mounts to a San Diego ballot measure that could lead to commercial development inside that city's struggling port.

Here's a news release from the California Secretary of State of a very rare event: the conviction of a signature gatherer in San Joaquin County. The crime in this case? Attempting to register a fictitious voter. There are laws on signature gatherers, and several states are trying to regulate the petition trade. But it's dangerous ground because almost everything signature gatherers do is political speech in some form.

There are signs that Colorado is headed towards the kind of Labor vs. Business Ballot Initiative Super Bowl that Californians experienced during the special election of 2005. It seems that every few weeks, one side or the other ups the ante by filing new initiatives aimed at the prerogatives of the other. Colorado's governor has called a meeting for Monday in an effort to head off warfare, but don't bet it on him succeeding. Ballot initiatives, once filed, take on lives of their own. A whole industry of people who profit from the measures -- and interest groups who like the measures -- soon seize on viable initiatives. In many cases, the initiative's original sponsors can change their mind and sue for peace -- but it doesn't matter. Here's a round-up of headlines from over the past couple days.

RIGHT TO WORK SUMMIT: The Rocky Mountain News has this report on Monday's scheduled meeting between the governor and advocates for a ballot initiative that would make Colorado a "right-to-work state." California cognoscenti will recognize the name of Jonathan Coors, a former aide to Gov. Schwarzenegger.

CRACKDOWN ON SIGNATURE GATHERERS? The Contra Costa Times has this item in praise of a bill that will attempt to hold initiative sponsors liable for misstatements and misrepresentations made by signature gatherers. One wonders if the sponsor has met any signature gatherers, who tend to be, shall we say, independent-minded. They often are folks who, because of their life choices, like to be paid in cash. How does one police these misrepresentations? Who decides? This bill may pass, but it seems like an outrageous criminalization of political speech that will produce nothing more than litigation.

NO EMERGING NATIONAL TREND: Those Nevada ballot initiatives -- one putting more scrutiny on government contracting, the other banning taxpayer funds from being used for lobbying -- have been withdrawn by their conservative backers. Those backers blame legal challenges by labor for slowing down qualification of the measures.

SARASOTA COUNTY: Florida is billed as a model for how to use ballot initiatives to control growth.