John Schultz's Weblog

Good idea, wrong plan The Missouri House of Representatives passed HB 1763 on February 28. This bill will put additional requirements and burdens on those collecting signatures for initiative and referendum petitions in Missouri such as:

• Prohibit collecting signatures for more than one petition at the same time.
• Require petition collectors to be residents of Missouri and a U.S. citizen.
• Require a petition circulator to register with the Secretary of State's office prior to collecting signatures as opposed to registering by the deadline to submit petitions.
• Outlaw paying paid petitioners by the signature and allow for discarding the signatures of any petitioner paid by the signature.
• Prohibit those who have been found guilty or pled guilty of forgery from collecting signatures.
• Makes knowingly signing a name other than one's name a class one election offense.

Having helped collect signatures for Missouri Citizens for Property Rights' two eminent domain petitions, I have some concerns with a couple of the provisions of HB 1763 and its Senate counterpart, SB 909.

Representative Michael Parson, the sponsor of HB 1763, has stated in at least two stories that "I think initiative petitions need to be difficult to put on the ballot" and "To change our constitution ought to be difficult to do." If that is his intent, the General Assembly should put a Constitutional amendment before Missouri voters asking them to raise the necessary percentage of voters from 50% to 66% to approve any amendments to Missouri's Constitution. This would make it harder to change our State Constitution and likely mean the end of many of the divisive petitions Missouri has seen over the past few years, while still allowing those initiatives with a broad measure of support the opportunity to be enacted.

Secondly, I disagree with eliminating the ability for a petitioner to circulate multiple petitions. MO-CPR is required by the Missouri Constitution to circulate two separate petitions as they are seeking to make changes to two different articles of Missouri's Constitution. If the group and its petitioners had to collect signatures (much of which has been done by volunteers) under the proposed legislation, it would require twice as many people and infringe on the right of Missouri citizens to place initiatives on the ballot, as guaranteed by Article III, Section 49 of the Missouri Constitution.

Finally, the requirement that a petition circulator be a Missouri resident does not seem to be well-defined. Would this be anyone living in Missouri for a set period of time? Would a circulator need to be registered to vote in Missouri? Regardless of how a resident is defined, any out-of-state signature gatherers would not be voting on the measures they are collecting signatures for - the final decision would be up to Missouri's voters.

SB 909 is currently before the Financial & Governmental Organizations and Elections for perfection and will likely be going to the Senate floor very soon. In addition to contacting the Senators on the committee, also contact your Senator via this link if you know who your Senator is, or you can find your Senator on this page. ( Mar 03 2008, 03:47:28 AM CST ) Permalink