Ballot Qualifications & Schedule
Date Initiative language can be submitted to state for November 2002:
Anytime
Signatures are tied to vote of which office: Secretary of State
Next Secretary of State election: 2010
Votes cast for Secretary of State in last election: 1,520,935
Net number of signatures required: 5% of votes cast for Secretary of State
in last election, for both statutes and amendments. (76,046 signatures)
Distribution Requirement: None
Circulation period: 186 Days
Do circulators have to be residents: No
Date when signatures are due for certification: The petition must be filed
within 6 months from when the final language is set by the Title Board and
no later than 3 months before a statewide election.
Signature verification process: The Secretary of State verifies signatures by
a random sample procedure. Not less than five percent of the signatures,
and in no event fewer than 4,000 signatures, are to be verified. If the
sample indicates that the number of valid signatures is 90 percent or less
of the required total, the petition is deemed to have insufficient signatures.
If the valid signatures are found to be 110 percent or more of number
required, the petition is deemed sufficient. However, if the number of valid
signatures is found to be over 90 percent but less than 110 percent of the
required number, the law requires that each signature on the petition be
verified.
Single-subject restriction: Yes
Legislative tampering: The Legislature can repeal and amend an initiative
statute passed by the voters.
Excerpted from the Initiative & Referendum Almanac by M. Dane Waters.