Nebraska Senator Bill Avery has intoduced LB 1059, to allow initiative and referendum petitions to be signed electronically. Here is a copy of the bill. It has a hearing on February 10 in the Senate’s Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.
No state currently allows electronic signature-gathering for any type of petition for ballot access. It is already common for states to allow blank petition forms to be downloaded on a home computer, but then the signatures must be gathered the old-fashioned way.
LB 1059 does not apply to ballot access petitions for new parties or independent candidates. The bill’s sponsor, Bill Avery, is a Democrat from Lincoln. Nebraska Senators are elected on a non-partisan basis but they are usually registered members of either the Democratic or the Republican Party.
Legislation allowing the use of electronic-gathered signatures on petitions for ballot access for independent and 3rd parties might be a better way to address the unreasonable number or percentage of signatures required by some states.
One of the problems in gathering signatures is finding the workers (to gather the signatures) and finding enough registered voters in the time frame allowed to sign. If the electronic-signature petitions could be posted on websites of the candidates and parties, it would be easier to collect the signatures.
Just my thoughts. Richard, has this been tried before?