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Legislators tackle that nasty threat of petitions

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published April 10, 2005

As you know, our Legislature is considering several ways to crack down on citizen petitions to change the state Constitution.

Most of these schemes - such as requiring 60 percent of the vote for a citizen idea to pass - would still need voter approval.

So at least the voters get final say. The Legislature can't take away the citizens' power unilaterally.

Or can it?

Maybe so, as it turns out.

There's a sneaky bill also making its way through the Legislature right now. This bill would tie up future petition drives with so much regulation and red tape as to make them impossible.

Without voter approval.

Look up Senate Bill 1996 or its House version, House Bill 1471. There's a wonderful, Orwellian title: "The Petition Fraud and Voter Protection Act." The sponsors are state Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Winter Haven, and Rep. Dudley Goodlette, R-Naples.

The bill would change the act of a citizen signing a petition from a simple, brief exchange to a bureaucratic hassle:

To sign a petition, you would have to know your voter identification number and deal with considerably more paperwork.

Your signature would become invalid unless it was submitted to the local elections office within 10 days of your signing it. That is ridiculously impractical.

So many new rules - and threats of felony prosecution - would be slapped upon signature gatherers that all but the most determined or courageous would be hard pressed to succeed.

Any political party or voter could tie up the process in court by challenging elections supervisors to prove that they had verified every single name.

For each new rule and regulation in this bill, failure to dot every "i" would carry the same punishment - every signature gathered by that person would be thrown out, no matter if they were otherwise valid.

It would be illegal to pay anyone "directly or indirectly" according to the number of signatures gathered. But that language is so broad, shooting for any kind of signature goal might become a second-degree felony - punishable by up to 15 years in prison. (The Legislature apparently considers the threat posed by citizen petitions to be equal to the threat of violent criminals and drug dealers.)

Paid signature gatherers would have to wear a large badge. Every citizen who signed a petition also would have to sign an acknowledgement that he/she knew the signature gatherer was being paid.

It would become illegal for anyone under 18 to take part in petition drives. In other words: Get lost, you politically minded high school kids!

Petition gatherers would have to submit IDs and personal identifying information, to be kept on file for "anyone" to inspect. (No doubt the opposing campaign and stalkers will be happy.) Otherwise, all his or her signatures would be thrown out.

Petition forms themselves would become regulated political advertising.

Last, any signatures on existing petitions not validated by elections supervisors by Oct. 1, the effective date of the law, would be wiped out.

All in all, a nasty piece of work.

Now, some people think that Florida has too many amendments, or that some bad ideas have gotten passed. Some say we should crack down on signature fraud.

Fine. But this! This oily, unfair little bill is intended simply to strangle citizen petition drives in the cradle.

The presumption in our law ought to be in favor of counting a citizen's signature, not in favor of throwing it out at the slightest excuse. The presumption ought to be that citizens are the boss. Instead, we have this Barney Fife, this Peckinsniff of a Legislature, throwing up technicalities.

The next vote comes this Tuesday at the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, happens to have a vote. So does state Sen. Rod Smith, D-Gainesville, who wants to be governor.

If you want to be heard on this, your state senator's phone number is in the book. The Web site www.leg.state.fl.us also links to each individual member.

Call, or e-mail, whether you oppose this bill, or support it. At least those forms of "petition" are still legal. For now, anyway.

[Last modified April 10, 2005, 00:39:14]