S.T.O.P. is over the hump and coasting towards the starting line.
Check out the article in the Rapid City Journal today:
A milestone has been passed. Joining the Constitutional Amendment C, Relating to the definition of marriage, the S.T.O.P. Measure is looking like it’s going to be the first independently proposed (i.e., the legislature didn’t put it there) ballot measure of the season. And smartly, they know they need a cushion for the ballot measure.
Many candidates and ballot measures wrongfully ignore the petition process of campaigns as simply a procedural step. Well, yeah, that’s true. But it’s up to the supporters of the candidate or measure to make it an asset or a liability.
As an asset, this list is going to be your first fundraising list source. It's a volunteer prospect list. It might be a block captain list. As a liability, it can also sink your campaign before you even get out of the gate.
In the recent history of the state, there has been several times that the Secretary of State has ended up in court over someone goofing up their own petitions. And I don’t have a lick of sympathy for them. The rules are simple.
First, Don’t talk about fight club.. (Heh. Sorry, wrong rules). According to the Secretary of State’s website, there are laws expressly outlining how the petitions are to be circulated, signed and turned in. What are they? –
When people go to get their signatures, they are sloppy. They bend or ignore the rules. And then you have to contend with the signers filling things out improperly or making mistakes through ignorance. If they haven’t registered to vote at their new location it may invalidate the signature.
And some of these rules aren't widely known. Heck, I wasn’t aware myself of Item #14, where it says “A voter may sign as many petitions for a particular office as there are positions to be filled.” And I’ve been doing this for a while. There’s another point where you can kick out signatures.
Check out rule #9 above, where there’s no P.O. boxes for 1st class municipalities. That's bound to get some people. There’s people out there who aren’t sure how they are registered to vote. Then you have to contend with the Registered mail rule that trips up at least one candidate every cycle. And yes, REGISTERED MAIL - not certified. Because registered mail has the date and time, and certified does not.
(Okay here’s a good academic exercise for Secretary of State Chris Nelson, or staff – How many people have screwed that one up in the last 20 years.)
If the political parties really wanted to mix it up, they’d create petition teams to be ready to go after nominating petitions after the deadline had passed to file additional signatures. I would bet that they’d knock out at least two or three candidates on each side.
Really, they could do it with a temporary team of a couple of dozen college volunteers to cross match voter registrations, and an attorney to file the objections. It could cause an incumbent who was lazy or pressed for time on their petitions to lose a race that was thought to be unwinnable by the challenger.
Does that seem like a finky trick? Well, it’s not as honorable as running a campaign, but it is usually a lot cheaper.
Napoli seeks more petition signaturesRead the whole thing here.
A petition drive to get a property-tax assessment measure on the 2006 ballot has surpassed the minimum number of required signatures, but thousands more are still needed, state Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City, said Monday.
Napoli's group, Stabilize Taxes on Property in South Dakota, or STOP, is circulating petitions to get a constitutional amendment on the 2006 ballot which, if approved by the voters, would cap property-tax assessments.
Petitions must be submitted to the South Dakota secretary of state's office a year in advance of the 2006 elections. The deadline is 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7.
Napoli said about 36,000 signatures have been collected. The minimum number required to place a proposed constitutional amendment on the 2006 ballot is 33,456.
"I know we are going to get challenges, so we need to get at least 45,000 as a cushion," Napoli said. "Once we walk in the door on Nov. 7, then the real debate will start."
A milestone has been passed. Joining the Constitutional Amendment C, Relating to the definition of marriage, the S.T.O.P. Measure is looking like it’s going to be the first independently proposed (i.e., the legislature didn’t put it there) ballot measure of the season. And smartly, they know they need a cushion for the ballot measure.
Many candidates and ballot measures wrongfully ignore the petition process of campaigns as simply a procedural step. Well, yeah, that’s true. But it’s up to the supporters of the candidate or measure to make it an asset or a liability.
As an asset, this list is going to be your first fundraising list source. It's a volunteer prospect list. It might be a block captain list. As a liability, it can also sink your campaign before you even get out of the gate.
In the recent history of the state, there has been several times that the Secretary of State has ended up in court over someone goofing up their own petitions. And I don’t have a lick of sympathy for them. The rules are simple.
First, Don’t talk about fight club.. (Heh. Sorry, wrong rules). According to the Secretary of State’s website, there are laws expressly outlining how the petitions are to be circulated, signed and turned in. What are they? –
CIRCULATING A NOMINATING PETITIONAnd if you’re circulating a ballot measure, better look at these rules too:
1. The declaration of candidacy at the top of the petition form must be completed prior to circulation for signatures (SDCL 12-6-8). The name will appear on the ballot in the exact form indicated in the declaration of candidacy (SDCL 12-16-1).
2. Petitions may not be circulated before January 1, 2006. Party nominating petitions may be filed no earlier than January 20 and no later than April 4, 2006. Nominating petitions for independent candidates for all offices except president may be filed no earlier than January 1 and no later than June 6, 2006. Petitions which are mailed by REGISTERED MAIL prior to 5:00 p.m. on the last day to file will be considered timely filed. Certified mail received after the deadline will NOT be considered timely filed.
3. Signatures of registered voters must be obtained between the date of the candidate's signed declaration of candidacy and the date of the circulator's verification.
4. The petition circulator must personally witness each signature on the petition being circulated. The petition's verification must be completed following circulation and must include the circulator's printed name, address, city, state and be signed under oath before a notary public or other officer authorized to administer oaths. The candidate may not serve as the notary public.
5. Each petition signer must be a registered voter in the state of South Dakota in the jurisdiction for which the petition is circulated (SDCL 12-6-8).
6. All petition signers for political party candidates must be registered voters of that party.
7. Signers must sign their names as they are registered to vote or as they usually sign their names.
8. The signer's printed name must also appear.
9. Each signature line must show a complete residence address. This can be street and house number or rural route and box number in addition to the city or town. Zip codes are optional.
If the signer is a resident of a second or third class municipality, a post office box number may be used in lieu of a street address. Second and third class municipalities are those with less than 5000 population. They would include all municipalities except the following which are first class municipalities:
Aberdeen, Brandon, Brookings, Huron, Madison, Mitchell, Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Spearfish, Sturgis, Vermillion, Watertown and Yankton.
10. Each signature line must show the month, day and year it was signed.
11. Numbers to designate the month are permissible. Abbreviations commonly used are also acceptable.
12. The county of the signer's voter registration must be included.
13. The date, address, county of registration, and printed name may be added by the circulator prior to the petition being filed. Ditto marks may not be used.
14. A voter may sign as many petitions for a particular office as there are positions to be filled (SDCL 12-6-8).
15. If photocopies are made of the originally signed petition sheet for circulation, the original petition sheet must be submitted with the photocopied sheets.
16. Each petition sheet must be a self-contained sheet with the heading, declaration of candidacy, instructions to signers, signature lines and circulator's verification on a single sheet.
17. Petitions for legislative, judicial, water development district, state and federal offices are filed with the Secretary of State.
18. Petitions for county offices are filed with the appropriate county auditor.
It is prudent to submit any petition to the filing authority with ample time prior to the deadline to allow you to collect additional signatures if there are not sufficient valid signatures presented on your initial petition.
CIRCULATING A BALLOT QUESTION PETITIONDa rules are da rules. Pretty simple. So why do so many people screw it up? Actually, I would propose the question – “Why don’t fewer of them get thrown out?”
1. All of the guidelines for circulating a nominating petition (except 1, 2, 3, 6, 14 & 15) apply to the circulation of ballot question petitions.
2. The text to be circulated on any initiative or constitutional amendment petition must be submitted to the director of the legislative research council who will within 15 days provide written comments on the measure to the sponsors and the secretary of state (SDCL 12-13-25). This requirement does not apply to referred laws.
3. The full text of any petition to be circulated to put a question on the general election ballot complete with names and addresses of the petition sponsors shall be filed with the Secretary of State following receipt of written comments from the legislative research council and prior to circulation for signatures (SDCL 2-1-6.2). No signatures obtained before that filing date will be counted.
4. All sections of any completed petition shall be filed in the Secretary of State's office simultaneously together with a sworn affidavit prescribed by the State Board of Elections signed by two-thirds of the sponsors (SDCL 2-1-6.2).
5. A completed petition for an initiated constitutional amendment must be filed by November 7, 2005.
6. A petition containing signatures collected within one year after filing of the full text for an initiated measure must be filed by May 2, 2006.
7. A completed petition for a referred law must be filed within ninety days of adjournment of the legislative session in which the measure was passed.
When people go to get their signatures, they are sloppy. They bend or ignore the rules. And then you have to contend with the signers filling things out improperly or making mistakes through ignorance. If they haven’t registered to vote at their new location it may invalidate the signature.
And some of these rules aren't widely known. Heck, I wasn’t aware myself of Item #14, where it says “A voter may sign as many petitions for a particular office as there are positions to be filled.” And I’ve been doing this for a while. There’s another point where you can kick out signatures.
Check out rule #9 above, where there’s no P.O. boxes for 1st class municipalities. That's bound to get some people. There’s people out there who aren’t sure how they are registered to vote. Then you have to contend with the Registered mail rule that trips up at least one candidate every cycle. And yes, REGISTERED MAIL - not certified. Because registered mail has the date and time, and certified does not.
(Okay here’s a good academic exercise for Secretary of State Chris Nelson, or staff – How many people have screwed that one up in the last 20 years.)
If the political parties really wanted to mix it up, they’d create petition teams to be ready to go after nominating petitions after the deadline had passed to file additional signatures. I would bet that they’d knock out at least two or three candidates on each side.
Really, they could do it with a temporary team of a couple of dozen college volunteers to cross match voter registrations, and an attorney to file the objections. It could cause an incumbent who was lazy or pressed for time on their petitions to lose a race that was thought to be unwinnable by the challenger.
Does that seem like a finky trick? Well, it’s not as honorable as running a campaign, but it is usually a lot cheaper.
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