Newswire
Opponents of a measure to repeal the death penalty in Maryland said Friday they fell short of their goal to collect enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot in the 2014 election.
Del. Neil C. Parrott, one of the leaders of the effort, said about 15,000 signatures were collected since the beginning of May. That number fell short of the nearly 18,600 certified signatures required by the Friday deadline.
Friday’s deadline was the initial hurdle. A total of about 55,750 certified signatures were needed by the end of June for the issue to go to a voter referendum.
“We did not have enough (signatures) for the first turn-in,” said Parrott, R-Washington. “The groundswell that we needed … wasn’t there.”
A recall effort against Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio went down in flames Thursday. Leaders of the group, Respect Arizona and Citizens for a Better Arizona did not collect the necessary number of signatures to force a recall election, the Los Angeles Times reported.
They needed 335,000 by 5 p.m.
Citizens for a Better Arizona President Randy Parraz said the two groups only got 300,000, United Press International reported.
The failure was not much of a surprise. Early Thursday morning, group members were suggesting in various media reports that they weren’t going to meet the recall requirements.
Virginia’s law prohibiting out-of-state residents from circulating petitions for third-party presidential candidates is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney’s ruling last year that the residency requirement is an impermissible restraint on political speech.
The Oregon Senate on Tuesday voted to toughen the regulation of signature gathering firms, despite the objections of Republicans and other critics who charged that it could have a chilling effect on ballot measure campaigns.
Critics said that Senate Bill 154, which passed on a party-line vote of 16 to 14, could subject canvassing firms to potential criminal penalties for inadvertent errors involving election laws.
Supporters, including a spokesman for Secretary of State Kate Brown, said that the measure only subjected firms that gather voter signatures to the same regulations that individual canvassers and the chief petitioners of ballot measures already must meet.
Missouri lawmakers sent a bill to the governor that would change the process for citizens to place proposals on voting ballots.
House Bill 117 makes new requirements for those involved in petitioning to have a proposal appear on election ballots in 2014. State Sen. Jay Wasson, R-Nixa, who handled the bill in the Missouri Senate, says it will make the petition process more open and understandable to voters.
“It does five things basically, and the main thing you want to think about is transparency,” Wasson said.
House Bill 117 would require the ballot title to appear on initiative and referendum petitions, and would increase penalties for persons who commit petition signature fraud.
Lassen County Clerk Julie Bustamante announced Friday that petitioners seeking to oust Lassen Supervisor Jack Hanson from office have collected enough valid signatures to allow a
A new citizen group in Yakima is hoping to make it harder for city council members to raise taxes.
They’re called the Citizens for Two-Thirds. The organization started gathering signatures this week to get a new measure on November’s ballot.
They want to change Yakima’s city charter and require a two-thirds majority vote of the city council anytime they want to impose new taxes.
Right now, a simple majority vote would pass a new tax. But, under the two-thirds rule, a super majority would be required. That takes it from four council members agreeing, to five out of seven.
Read More: here.
A group of municipal officials pressed Wisconsin lawmakers Tuesday to make it harder to initiate recall elections at the local level, saying it’s currently too easy and that such campaigns often divide communities.
Town of Garfield board chairman Steve Dickinsen told the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections that a recall is usually the best way for people to call out officials they don’t agree with on issues, but it can be “divisive” if done too frequently.
Missouri could start holding public hearings on proposed ballot measures next year under legislation heading to Gov. Jay Nixon for approval.
The state Legislature passed several initiative petition reforms in a bill before the session ended last week. In addition to the creation of public meetings on the proposals, the legislation sets up requirements so Missourians will be able to access information about petitions online, requires petition circulators to disclose whether they are being paid for signatures and by whom, and enhances penalties for petition signature fraud.
Missouri has seen a large jump in the use of citizen petitions in recent years – from 16 submitted to the secretary of state’s office in 2004 to 143 submitted last year.
A referendum petition regarding a zoning ordinance that would allow construction of a Walmart Neighborhood Market is one step closer to appearing on a ballot.
Russellville City Clerk Kathy Collins confirmed Thursday she verified 917 of the petition’s signatures; 878 signatures were required.
The petition called for a special election on Aug. 13 to allow voters to decide whether to keep or overturn an ordinance rezoning property located at South Vancouver Avenue and West Main Street to a planned unit development (PUD).