2010 Ballot Integrity: Accountability
The ability to identify and evaluate each signature gatherer's body of work is the cornerstone of any effort to guarantee that an initiative that has qualified for the ballot did not use deception and fraud to do so.
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In some states, it is legal (or not expressly illegal) for signature gatherers to fill in information for voters, including the name, address, signature, and county fields. This diminishes the ability of election authorities to identify fraud, and should be expressly banned. It should be clearly stated in state statutes that a petitioner should have no reason to write in the voter's portion of a petition. If a petitioner is found to have filled out any portion of a petition on the voter's behalf, they should be prosecuted for forgery and the full body of work thrown out.
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Each petition sheet submitted to the state should include an affidavit, signed by the petition circulator, attesting that they personally collected the signature and witnessed each signature being signed. Petition affidavits should also be notarized so there is at least minimum accountability for the signatures that campaign petition circulators turn into the state.
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Since most states do not devote the time and resources necessary to fully review every signature qualifying a ballot initiative, the public should have timely access to all petition sheets after they have been submitted for verification instead of solely relying on a sample. The Secretary of State should also have a responsibility to release copies of signature petitions to the public in a timely manner to allow citizen groups to examine signatures submitted and monitor for fraud to ensure that an initiative with fraudulently gathered signatures does not qualify for the ballot. The minimum amount of time the public should have access to the petitions prior to the deadline for filing a challenge against any fraudulent signatures is 30 days.
By requiring more accountability for signature gathering vendors and the circulators they hire, the public will be better able to support election officials in their efforts to protect the integrity of the initiative process and voters will be more confident that initiatives qualified in a way consistent with state law.
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