Supporters of TABOR hail A.G.’s decision to drop case
OKLAHOMA CITY – It was a “great day for justice” when Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson decided not to pursue criminal charges against three individuals accused of violating the state’s ban on out-of-state petition circulators, says Paul Jacob, one of the “Oklahoma Three.”
The other two were Susan Johnson, president of National Voter Outreach, which conducted the 2005 signature drive for an Oklahoma Taxpayer Bill of Rights proposal, and Tulsan Rick Carpenter, chairman of Oklahomans in Action, the TABOR petition’s key state support group.
Edmondson also decided last week against asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court decision that held the Oklahoma law unconstitutional.
Jacob is chairman of Citizens in Charge, a Virginia-based ballot-initiative rights group.
“The charges brought against us by the attorney general have now been dismissed,” he said in a statement. “They should never have been brought in the first place. We did not break the law and, as we all now know, the law itself is unconstitutional.”
Jacob said the prosecution effort had a chilling effect on Oklahomans who want to reform government and hold it accountable through the petition process, although the dropped charges constitute a victory.“
The will of the people should always prevail over the desires of politicians,” he said…. (Read More)