With shady circulators asking for South Dakotans signatures on street corners and college campuses, it is more important than ever that we voters ask petition circulators to verify their identity and expect clear answers to our questions.
Consider that your signature on a petition is as powerful and as sacred as your vote on a ballot. By signing a petition, you are essentially voting, saying, “Yes, I want this matter to come to a public vote.” You would not fill out an absentee ballot and hand it to a perfect stranger to carry to the courthouse. If you couldn’t deliver that ballot yourself, you would require that your messenger give a name so you could hold that messenger accountable.
The same should be true of your signature on a petition. It is possible that dirty tricks are afoot among current petition circulators. The circulators carrying the fake 18%-rate-cap petition are resorting to all sorts of dirty tricks to prevent the real 36%-rate-cap petition from making the ballot, including shouting down honest circulators on street corners and circulating their own fake petition to make people think they’ve already signed for a rate cap and thus ignore the pleas of the circulators of the real 36% rate cap. Who’s to say other operatives interested in protecting their political interests wouldn’t hire those same circulators to carry other petitions, like the anti-gerrymandering redistricting petition or Rick Weiland’s political reforms, gather signatures, then throw those signatures away?
I’ve raised this concern of fake signature-collection before, as a reason that Bob Mercer’s proposed circulator registry might not be a bad idea. But we don’t need legislation to make the petition process more secure. We just need citizen vigilance. Neighbors, when a petitioner asks you to sign, ask that petitioner to identify himself or herself. Ask to see a driver’s license. Ask for information about his or her employer. Demand contact information so you can verify that this circulator submits your name and that his or her employer or coordinator includes your name in the total petition submitted to the Secretary of State.
And come November this year, if you learn that the Secretary of State never received your signature, you will know whom to call and hold accountable for stealing your signature and personal information for no good purpose.
Everybody needs to go to the SD attorney general website and file a complaint against these fake petition workers.
Go to this website, it is right under the consumer heading.
http://atg.sd.gov/
With Republicans, nation wide, soooo concerned about voter fraud, you would think Jackley’s office would be all over this kind of behavior. (Crickets!!!!)
Exactly, Loren!
Before I address the issues raised by previous commentors, I want to make it clear that I have no love for Jackley and the way he does business. However…
It is unreasonable to expect the AG to assign DCI agents to respond to reports of a suspicious petition circulator somewhere. Even if the circulator were still there when the cop arrives, it would be difficult to find a violation with which to charge the circulator on the spot. It is NOT illegal to take a sheet of paper to a street corner and ask people to sign it.
Given the incompetence of the AG and the DCI, the problem of making a case stick doubles in complexity.
I’m confident that the Secretary of State has had enough notice on the Payday Lender petitions that it will be checking things out pretty carefully.
I must say that I am impressed with the amount of money apparently being outlaid by the Shylock crowd to protect its little loanshark scheme.
I wouldn’t trust Jackley as far as I could toss a bobcat. South Dakota needs an Ag like iowa’s Democrat Tom Miller.
It is a good idea to read everything before signing your name.
If something doesn’t seem right, or you don’t feel comfortable, don’t sign it
.
Ask questions; be absolutely sure you know what you’re sure you know what you’re signing your name to. Asking for ID is not out of line.
If the Annette Bosworth petition fiasco taught us, is there is plenty of chances for petition fraud to happen.
There are some issues that I may not agree with, however I believe the issue should be put to public vote. Otherwise most issues should be handled by the legislature. That is why you voted into office
Of course, I know Jackley wouldn’t do jackshit about this, Newland. Filing a complaint would be more of a symbolic statement that South Dakotans are taking notice and don’t like what they see with illegal petitioners flooding the state.
It’s “petition circulators,” Jenny.
And ‘shylock’ is a racial slur Bob..
http://time.com/3394403/shylock-biden/
Would have thought this crowd to be more cognizant of that.
Shylock is a loanshark character in a Shakespeare play. The word has come to be a synonym for folks like the payday lenders. Is “Shylock” a disparaging term for “Italian?”
prediction out of left field: while reading corporate shenneigans w/ DOL, tubing loyal employees (“right to work” state yah know) and listening to NPR’s interview w/ Apple exec.: i predict that the sacred right to vote as diluted, together with lack of the sacred right to privacy of information on the net will be the cause of the end of the USA, or humanity; not war, abortion, crony fraud, climate, fossil fuels or guns, directly, anyway.