On January 6, I pointed out how the Secretary of State’s office had read statute exactly wrong in advising that ballot question sponsors need to submit proof of residency for all circulators before they begin circulating their petitions.
The lawyers appear to have told new Secretary of State Steve Barnett, yeah, Heidelberger’s right—fix those forms!
On January 14, the Secretary of State’s office posted revised guidance to petition circulators and a revised “Proof of Circulator Residency” form, both of which state clearly what the law clearly says: petition sponsors submit proof of circulator residency after circulation, with the completed petition.
This change in guidance aligns with the plain language of the law and spares petition sponsors insurmountable legal and practical grief, because no petition drive knows who all of its circulators will be before the petition drive begins.
The proof of circulator residency requirements already unduly burden petition circulators and sponsors. That burden should be repealed. But at least now the Secretary of State is explaining exactly how that onerous burden works and not adding an impossible and extra-statutory complication to petition drives.
Nice work Cory. You are our guy protecting from Republican obstruction of I/R constitutional rights. Huge thank you for your expertise and activism. Barnett is just a place holder as is Kristi, Rounds, Thune and others.
Hey, Barnett could have sat on this and just said, “Let the petition sponsors suffer. Not our job to make their day easier.” Instead, Team Krebs and Team Barnett both appear to have set the wheels in motion to take a closer look at the law and get the explanation right.
That said, thank you, Leslie. I am happy to serve.
If my initiative doesn’t take care of the problem, then as your next Governor, I promise to include numerous initiative and referendum reforms in my 2023 Legislative package. I’ll keep the Legislature so busy, they won’t have time for any Fox News resolutions.
Mr. H, if able, grudznick would serve on your team to run the 2023 packages for the legislatures and to ban resolutions entirely. You can pay me $40,000 and call me a policy analyst, but really I’ll be the puppet master behind your success.
You’ll be pulling strings on other puppets, not me, Grudz. But I will most certainly consider engaging you on my policy team. We’re not related, are we? ;-)
I had a bit of a wild side in my youth and you and I sport similar hair styles but there are other characteristics that would indicate you aren’t any offspring from my loins, Mr. H. But until they do DNA tests, people won’t know for sure. I could be your voice of reason as a $40K policy analyst. Show you how the legislatures used to work back in the day and such. Lunch is free, right?