| Return Integrity to Initiatives |
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| Bakersfield Californian |
| Aug 02, 2006 |
Editorial
Nothing must be allowed to compromise the integrity of lawmaking, including the mere appearance of corruption of California's initiative process.
It is in the interest of both the Legislature and the public that legislation to help ensure the integrity of the initiative process -- SB 1047 and AB 2946 -- pass.
The ever-increasing use of lawmaking by initiative makes it one of the most powerful policymaking tools in the political arsenal.
Because the stakes are so high, initiative passing is a big, profitable business, not a matter of well-meaning folks going door to door to champion causes.
It is while gathering signatures of registered voters in order to qualify a measure for the ballot that fraud occurs. Hundreds of complaints are under investigation in Orange County. And abuses in Kern County have been prosecuted in the past.
Signature gatherers -- called bounty hunters -- are paid by the number of signatures they get on petition forms. Although the signatures are verified when petitions are turned in, bounty hunters gather many more than they need to ensure they have enough. And often they will have people reregister to vote on the spot as insurance. There have been allegations that they have switched voters' political party affiliation in this process if there is a value in doing so.
There's no way to take the profit out of the process. To do so is an unconstitutional abridgement of political speech.
But to help curb abuse, SB 1047 by state Sen. Debra Bowen, D-Redondo Beach, and AB 2946 by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would require signature gatherers to be paid by the hour, rather than per head. That reduces the incentive to use high-pressure tactics on voters.
The bills have many more provisions, including disclosure of economic interest by signature gatherers and their employers. But the key is removing the bounty hunter's incentive to maximize his income by a profit end justifying any means to get signatures.
http://www.bakersfield.com/135/story/65640.html
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