Pay-Per-Signature Bans
Several states –including Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming – ban or restrict paying people who collect signatures on a ballot initiative, referendum or recall petition based on the number of signatures they collect. The number of signatures that states require and the limited time period in which to collect them makes it absolutely necessary in most cases to hire paid circulators; and production-based payment is standard procedure for petition circulation. Professional petition circulators will often not work unless paid by the signature. Federal courts have struck down these bans in five different states – Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, Washington and Idaho – for violating the First Amendment.