Montana: Opponents give testimony on petition fraud claims
Opponents of Initiative 164, who want it yanked from the November ballot, on Thursday in a courtroom here painted a picture of a petition drive to qualify the measure that illegally conducted contests among signature gatherers, lied about the industry it would affect and notarized signatures before people actually signed the petition. The state, meantime, challenged them to come up with even one invalid name out of the 27,000-plus signatures approved by the Montana Secretary of State’s Office that would put the issue in the hands of the state’s voters.