Issue petitions may fall short - Issue petitions may fall short
Many signatures turned in by backers of slot machines, minimum–wage hike invalid
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Robert Vitale and Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Supporters of proposed constitutional amendments that would raise Ohio’s minimum wage and permit slot-machine gambling submitted about twice the number of signatures needed to get the issues on the Nov. 7 ballot.
They might need every one of them.
Elections officials in six large Ohio counties say they are finding as many as half the signatures are invalid.
The state’s largest county, Cuyahoga, validated just 69,046 of 165,858, or 42 percent, of the signatures submitted for the Ohio Learn and Earn gambling proposal.
Meanwhile, it appears that some names submitted for the minimum-wage issue by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, might be fraudulent, according to Matthew Damschroder, Franklin County elections director.
"These are awful," Damschroder said of some of the minimum-wage petition forms. "Clear as day, somebody signed four names right in a row."
In all, he said, the petition contains "lots and lots of notgenuine signatures," which can mean a felony if forged by paid circulators. Entire pages have been invalidated, the elections director said.
ACORN is the same group whose paid voter-registration workers already are being investigated for more than 500 potentially bogus new-voter forms. Officials said their $8- to $10-an-hour workers collected signatures for the minimumwage issue and signed up new voters simultaneously.
Damschroder said reviewers also found signatures and addresses that don’t match those on file with the elections board. Workers have gone through 45 percent of the minimumwage petitions and have validated less than half, he said.
Both committees need 13,850 valid signatures from voters in Franklin County.
To get on the ballot, supporters of the minimum-wage increase and Learn and Earn each require 322,899 signatures from registered Ohio voters. Minimum-wage backers submitted 765,594 signatures; Learn and Earn supporters turned in 624,625.
County elections agencies have until Monday to check the petitions. Questions have not arisen on petitions of groups backing three other proposed statewide ballot issues.
Tim Burga, of the Ohio AFLCIO, a leader of the minimumwage campaign, said the number of invalid signatures is not too surprising.
"There’s so many requirements on these petitions. It could be a number of things. We got as many signatures as we got because we expect there might be a high throw-out rate."
Learn and Earn committee spokeswoman Linda Siefkas said insufficient signatures isn’t a concern — yet.
To be safe, however, "We’re back out in the field gathering signatures in case we need them."
She said there is a discrepancy of 13,500 fewer names in what the committee submitted statewide and what the secretary of state reported to counties. The committee has asked for an inquiry.
Other Ohio counties reported similar numbers to Franklin.
Lucas County officials received boxes of minimum-wage petitions to begin reviewing just yesterday, said Dan Pilrose, deputy director.
However, the board completed reviewing the Learn and Earn petition last week, validating 13,967, or 51 percent, of the 27,308 names submitted. The campaign needs 12,949 from Lucas County.
Like in Franklin County, officials in Cuyahoga County are still reviewing the minimumwage petition, spokesman Michael DeFranco said.
With half the petition forms examined, 42,159 out of 82,832 signatures were valid, or 51 percent. The issue needs 37,895 valid names from Cuyahoga County.
In Dayton, Betty Smith, deputy director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections, said employees are working late on nights and weekends to complete the certification process.
"We’re swamped," she said.
Dayton officials just got their boxes of minimum-wage names but invalidated some on which the original circulator’s name was crossed out and replaced by a new name.
Smith said 11,408 of 20,170 signatures for Learn to Earn, or 57 percent, were valid. However, the campaign needs 16,128 from Montgomery County.
"We found one dead person that signed a petition," she said. "This person died three years ago."
In Akron, Summit County elections workers began reviewing petitions Tuesday for all potential ballot issues. Director Bryan Williams said there’s already a box of rejects from the minimum-wage drive.
The biggest issue there, though, seems to be signers who didn’t list the date, Williams said. He called the validation rate "extremely low."
Hamilton County officials in Cincinnati have finished their reviews of the Learn & Earn petition.
Elections Director John Williams said 38,749 signatures, or 48 percent, were validated and 41,803 rejected because signers weren’t registered to vote, listed incorrect addresses or wrote illegibly.
posted by stukerr to politics at 1:35 P.M. EST
(6 Comments)
Comments ...
Gee, there's alot of this going around lately. Whaddya know?
posted by katie82640 at 07:54 P.M. EST on Thu Aug 24, 2006 #
Yeah I signed the smoking ban petition as: Isabelle Ringing, Sal Monella, Ty Gerr, Justin Casey Falls, Al Killew, and Mustaf Herrod Appyor Poupier. Just kidding I didn't sign. but it would have been funny if I did.
posted by MikeyA at 08:47 P.M. EST on Thu Aug 24, 2006 #
Speaking of the smoking ban.... there's been a guy at UT the past couple days with a petition for Smoke Less.
The same guy was out at UT a while back trying to get people to sign the Smoke Free petition.
Interesting....
posted by valbee at 12:20 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 25, 2006 #
What's interesting is the fact that no one on a college campus is pushing the "Smoke More" petition.
posted by jr at 10:34 A.M. EST on Fri Aug 25, 2006 #
Does anyone want to guess how much of a bad effect it is to have paid sig-collectors? I was accosted by one of these in downtown Toledo over a year ago, and they not only didn't know what I was to sign for, but they also didn't know who or what to refer me to for further investigation (book, website, contact name, etc.). In now-typical fashion, some organization probably just made a call to some temp agency for sig-collectors and they just handed out forms and clipboards. Real grassroots efforts are much more effective, methinks.
posted by GuestZero at 04:42 A.M. EST on Sat Aug 26, 2006 #
I wonder how much ACORN pays their signature collectors...
posted by TheTalentedMrC at 08:27 A.M. EST on Sat Aug 26, 2006 #
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