signatures
A lot of offices will be decided in Nevada this November, but not a lot of issues. The deadline for signature petitions has passed and the two being circulated didn’t get enough signatures to qualify. Both were conservative-backed issues. One asking that all voters provide photo ID was re-worded and then failed to get enough signatures. The second asked that a statewide health insurance exchange be banned. No signatures were turned in on that one either.
Officials say the number of questions on the ballot in a general election varies every cycle.
Supporters of an initiative that would jettison Oregon’s partisan primaries said they submitted 140,045 signatures to the secretary of state on Monday — appearing to give them enough to earn a spot on the November ballot.
The Every Oregon Voter Counts Petition Committee collected the signatures in just a little over five weeks in what the group said was the fastest effort to collect initiative signatures in Oregon history.
Sponsors of proposed ballot initiatives are scrambling in the final days before a Friday deadline to gather enough signatures to put their issues to Montana voters on the Nov. 4 ballot.
The Montana Secretary of State’s office has approved a dozen initiative petitions for signature-gathering after they passed legal reviews by the attorney general. Officials on Monday did not know how many — if any — would make the deadline.
“We’re just kind of waiting,” said spokeswoman Terri McCoy. “It’s not unusual for all those signatures to come in at the last minute.”
Read more: here
A proposed amendment to the Illinois Constitution to impose term limits on lawmakers apparently has enough valid signatures to appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Rupert Borsgmiller, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said Monday that a preliminary review of petitions filed by the Committee for Legislative Reform and Term Limits showed that about 60 percent of the signatures on the petitions are valid.
The chairman of MDPetitions.com, Maryland Delegate Neil Parrott, announced that his most recent petition effort, a referendum on the so-called “Bathroom Bill,” fell short of its signature collection goal.
The petition needed to collect 18,579 signatures from registered state voters by May 31 and a total of 55,736 by June 30. But only 17,575 signatures had been collected by supporters of the referendum by the deadline.
Proponents of the “Yes for Independent Maps” initiative campaign in Illinois were dealt a blow last week when election authorities found over half the signatures checked as part of a random sample were invalid. Officials within the initiative campaign attacked the random sample process, contending there are more than enough valid signatures to put the measure on the ballot in November.
“We believe that the state ran a rushed, uneven, and back-room signature validation process, and that’s the reason for the unacceptable validity rate,” said Campaign Manager Michael Kolenc.
A pro-hunting coalition on Tuesday turned in 374,000 petition signatures to protect Michigan’s ability to have more gray wolf hunts, proposing a law to override two November ballot issues intended to stop wolf hunting.
Once the measure backed by Citizens for Professional Wildlife Management is certified — the group needs 258,000 valid signatures — the Republican-led Legislature will have 40 days while in session to vote.
If lawmakers approve it, the November ballot issues would become moot. If legislators do not vote, voters will see three wolf-hunting related proposals in November.
Read More: here
More than half of the signatures collected to get a measure opposing genetically modified foods on the Nov. 4 ballot in Maui County were rejected.
Organizers collected more than 9,700 signatures, but the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Friday that the Maui County Clerk deemed about 5,000 of them invalid.
The initiative seeks to ban genetically modified organisms in Maui County.
To get on the general election ballot, an initiative petition must have about 8,500 valid signatures, or 20 percent of the number of people who voted in the last mayoral election.
Read More: here
The first of almost a dozen ballot proposals to allow greater local control of oil and gas development cleared an important hurdle Friday, winning clearance from the Colorado Supreme Court.
Known as Initiative 75, for now, the proposed constitutional amendment would give local governments more control over businesses and corporations that impact the health and safety of a community. That would include oil and gas drilling and hydrolic fracturing operations, which are regulated at the state level with some input from local governments.
The Colorado Community Rights Network, which successfully backed voter-approved fracking regulations in Lafayette, is heading up the initiative.
The group that wants to take the politically powerful process of drawing election maps away from Illinois lawmakers is facing more challenges after election authorities found that a majority of petition signatures needed to put the question to voters were invalid.
State Board of Elections executive director Rupert Borgsmiller said less than half of a 5 percent sample of signatures submitted by the “Yes for Independent Maps” campaign were valid — dealing a blow to an effort that already faces a court challenge in Chicago. But campaign officials say they’ve got enough valid signatures to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot in November and argue the state was “sloppy” in verifying signatures.
In recent weeks, both Illinois and Missouri have seen their signature-submission deadline pass with less than a handful of initiative petitions crossing the finish in time.
On the first of May, Illinois term limits supporters submitted nearly 600,000 signatures. Days later, a measure to reform the redistricting process turned in over 500,000 signatures. Both measures are likely to qualify, as the requirement for a spot on this November’s ballot is only 298,399 valid signatures.
On May 4, Missourians submitted two petitions: one measure would provide six weeks of early voting in the Show-Me State and the other would tie teacher retention and pay to student performance, as measured by standardized testing.
I have a riddle for you. When gathering signatures to put an initiative on the ballot, which would require more signatures? 1. A petition that covers Benton County. 2. A petition that covers the City of Corvallis?
Here are some not so helpful clues:
• The City of Corvallis sits within Benton County.
• More people live in Benton County than the city of Corvallis.
• The petition for Benton County affects more voters.
• The City of Corvallis occupies less land than Benton County.
Recently, Benton County Clerk, James Morales said that a group needs 2,171 signatures to place their measure on the Benton County November ballot.
In the quest for early voting in Missouri, Matthew Patterson says Sunday was satisfying.
About a half-hour before the 5 p.m. deadline, supporters of a ballot initiative petition to establish early voting in Missouri submitted what they said were more than 300,000 signatures contained in dozens of boxes.
In order to go on the ballot, the initiative petition needs approximately 160,000 voter signatures.
Patterson, the Springfield-based director of Missouri ProVote, said more than 36,000 signatures were collected in the Greene County area as part of a statewide effort. Locally, the collection effort began in mid-February and lasted until this past Friday, he said.
Three citizen-driven ballot measures are inching closer to the November general election ballot.
Signatures are being collected on measures that would start the school year after Labor Day, create a new conservation fund using oil tax revenue and make changes to parental rights and responsibilities.
The three initiatives, if the necessary signatures are gathered, would join five constitutional measures approved for a vote by lawmakers during last year’s legislative session.
Read More: here
Supporters of an independently elected Portland Public Water District filed 50,213 voter signatures with the City Auditor’s Office on Tuesday morning.
They need around 30,000 valid signatures to place their initiative measure on the May Primary Election ballot. The verification process could take several weeks.
“We are confident we are going to make it,” said Kent Craford, a former lobbyist and chief co-petitioner.
Read More: here