April 09, 2007

Editorial: Petition madness

"Six petition drives already are gathering voter signatures. Ten initiatives are pending at the California attorney general's office. We even have two competing initiatives awaiting title and summary on the issue of eminent domain, the power of the state to take private property for public use. One of those is sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, another by the California League of Cities. Chances are, many more initiative petitions are still to come.

Voters tired of long ballots with confusing, even contradictory initiatives do have power.

When faced with well-meaning people who wave petitions in your face at the grocery store or post office, you can just say No. Refuse to sign.

Or if you don't like that simple approach, be more discerning. Instead of indiscriminately signing all petitions, no matter the cause, ask questions. Not every initiative should make it to the ballot.

Two questions are key.

First, ask the signature gatherer if he or she volunteers or is paid for the petition drive.

While three of the 24 states that allow initiatives prohibit paying petition circulators on a per-signature basis, California isn't one of them. The going rate in California is more than $1 and sometimes $5 and more for every signature collected. Those getting paid by the signature, so-called "bounty hunters," may or may not know anything about the initiative. They may even have an incentive to misrepresent the measure to get you to sign, but more often they simply may be clueless about what they're promoting.

Also ask who's backing the measure. Signature gatherers aren't required to know or disclose that information, but it tells you something if they don't know or don't reveal it. The reality is that paid signature gatherers may know only who is paying them.

These questions can help voters decide whether the initiative is a genuine grassroots effort with volunteer support or one dominated by wealthy groups or individuals buying a way onto the ballot. If the signature gatherer can't give you information, don't sign the petition.

What many observers have called California's "Initiative Industrial Complex" isn't going to go away. Initiatives have become big business, evolving far beyond their 1911 origins as a means of direct democracy to check legislative excesses or abuses by special interests.

"The days of romanticizing the 'citizens' initiative process are over at the statewide level," a state commission said in a report on initiatives in 2002.

Likewise, if you do your part, the days of romanticizing the process in parking lots all over the state can end today."

Posted by Randy Riddle at April 9, 2007 08:57 AM