Archive for Petition Circulating
Recent Stories for Petition Circulating
Nebraska Attorney General Says Property Owners Can Bar Petition Circulators
Category: Petition Circulating · State: Nebraska · Source: Omaha World-Herald
Private property owners, including the owners of shopping malls and free-standing stores, have a legal right to bar petition circulators and their opponents from their property, Attorney General Jon Bruning said Friday. Bruning's office issued a legal opinion about the issue in response to a request by Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood of Norfolk. "The law is clear," Bruning said. "Private property owners have a right to restrict who comes on their property." Neither the U.S. Constitution nor the Nebraska Constitution overrides that right, according to the opinion. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects free speech and free assembly from interference by the government, but not interference from owners of private property, the opinion says. The same goes for articles in the Nebraska Constitution that protect free elections and petition rights.
Lawmaker Seeks Opinion on Petitions, Trespassing
Category: Petition Circulating · State: Nebraska · Source: Omaha World-Herald
Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood said Wednesday that he has asked for an attorney general's opinion on whether business owners can keep petition circulators and opponents off their property. Flood said he made the request because different cities are taking different positions on the question. Lincoln officials recently announced they would enforce trespassing laws against petition circulators and opponents who refuse to leave private property after being asked to do so. Omaha officials have followed that policy for some time. Flood said Norfolk has taken the position that it would not force circulators and opponents to leave.
Canvassers Target Voters
Category: Petition Circulating · State: Arkansas · Source: The Morning News-Arkansas
They gather where voters gather, hungry for signatures, eager to push their cause through direct democracy. They will be out in force, likely bearing clipboards, for Tuesday's election. Poll site canvassers use myriad approaches, but their goal is the same: To fill their petition with as many voter signatures as they can get. "We will be out there," said Jeannie Burlsworth, the chairwoman of Secure Arkansas, a group working to get a ballot initiative in front of voters at the November general election. The ballot measure wants to prevent people illegally in the United States from receiving public benefits.