As you may remember, after the success of the voucher referendum, the Legislature passed several laws that would make it increasingly difficult to qualify another citizen-led petition for the ballot. In this way they managed to hold off legislative ethics reform and the creation of an independent redistricting commission in 2010.
As the deadline for the Fair Boundaries and ethics reform petition drives neared, both groups were having difficulty gathering the increased number of signatures in the shortened span of time. They began using electronic signature gathering in order to speed up the process.
There was no law prohibiting this method. Electronic signatures can be verified and, in fact, are used for online voter registration. In spite of that, the Lt. Governor was unwilling to accept these signatures for the petition drive and this spurred quite a bit of debate.
Senator Bramble’s bill is designed to close the debate by prohibiting electronic signatures from petition drives. It also tightens once more the time allotted to collect signatures. Ironically, the same bill validates electronic signatures for voter registration up to 15 days prior to an election.
This bill appeared harmless in the original form (see http://le.utah.gov/~2011/bills/sbillint/sb0165.htm). The second substitute claimed to hold only a minor amendment but there were many more provisions included (see http://le.utah.gov/~2011/bills/sbillint/sb0165s01.htm). It will be interesting to see what other obstacles lay in store to a citizen’s right to petition government.
It was obvious what initiatives were targeted by earlier restrictions to the process. It makes me wonder what Senator Bramble fears now.
2 comments:
Wow. I can't think of why this is a good idea.
It is a good idea if you are a legislator who doesn't like to have your decisions questioned.
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