Citizens in Charge

In recent years, widespread allegations of petition signature fraud have been used as justification for a number of legislative changes to the citizen initiative process. These changes have in turn sparked controversy, culminating in court challenges over regulations that initiative proponents contend are unconstitutionally restrictive. As a result, a number of these laws have already been enjoined by federal courts or overturned as violating the First Amendment rights of citizens.

In hopes of better informing the debate over initiative and petition process reform, Citizens in Charge Foundation - a partner organization to Citizens in Charge - sought to assess the degree to which signature fraud can be verified in the 26 states in which citizens enjoy a statewide petition process for placing initiatives and/or referendums on the ballot.

In the 20 states that responded to requests for information under state open records and freedom of information laws, there were 17 cases of individuals convicted of forgery or fraud in the initiative and referendum petition process in five states between 1999 and 2008. The rarity of convictions for fraud or forgery in the initiative petition process (1.7 per year) only tells us so much, but the data certainly suggest that to the extent there is a problem with petition fraud, the first step would be to enforce laws already on the books.

Though more research needs to be done, the evidence thus far shows that cases of verified fraud or forgery are not pervasive in initiative or referendum petitions. Furthermore, many of the “reforms” passed by state legislatures to address fraud have shown no positive results. Virtually all the verified instances of fraud have been found in states with such laws in place.

You can read the report here.