The Missoulian
The state formally approved the petitions Tuesday to clear the way for medical marijuana advocates to begin gathering signatures in their attempt to suspend the more restrictive 2011 law and let voters decide its fate next year. Secretary of State Linda McCulloch notified the effort’s sponsor, the Montana Cannabis Industry Association, that Attorney General Steve Bullock had found the petition’s language legally sufficient. Her office reviewed and the ballot statements, McCulloch said.
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.
Friday is the final day for registered voters to sign initiatives and the day for ballot measure sponsors to turn in their petitions to county election officials. Then county election administrators have until July 16 to verify the signatures and turn them in, along with the totals, to Secretary of State Linda McCulloch. To qualify an initiative to amend a state law for the ballot, backers need the signatures of 5 percent of the state’s registered voters, or 24,377 signatures, including 5 percent of the voters in 34 of the 100 state House districts.
An initiative to ban trapping on public land in Montana has cleared its first hurdle toward appearing on the November 2010 ballot. The Montana Secretary of State’s office has concluded that the initiative proposed by Florence-based Footloose Montana can appear on the ballot if backers can get enough signatures to qualify the measure.