On Thursday, March 18, a Superior Court in San Mateo County, California, will hear Ni v Slocum. This is a case over whether a voter may sign a petition electronically. The plaintiff, Michael Ni, signed a statewide initiative petition in favor of legalizing marijuana. He signed it using the screen of his iPhone. His signature was delivered to the county elections office on a flash drive.
The California law says voters must “personally affix” their signatures to petitions. The county elections office, and the Secretary of State, argue that the law does not permit electronic signatures. See this story about the case from Fox & Hounds blog. Ni is co-founder of a Silicon Valley start-up that makes software for electronic signatures. If electronic signatures are ever accepted, it would be possible to circulate initiative petitions more cheaply than is currently the case. Most California legislators are hostile to the initiative process and are unlikely to approve any bill that makes it easier to get initiatives on the ballot. It is possible someone will circulate an initiative to legalize electronic signature-gathering someday.
How was Ni’s signature witnessed by the circulator?
Isn’t Joe Mathews, the author of the column, really saying that San Mateo County has demonstrated that it is trivial to reduce a signature to a digital format that can then be replicated at will – in its case, for comparing the signatures with numerous petitions that a particular voter may have signed. But if the same signature can be used for multiple comparisons, why can’t it be used for multiple signings?
And how does this fit in with the Daytona Beach case where use of carbon copied signatures are advocated. Why couldn’t Ni as easily have signed 100 different petitions.
What if someone decides to file for a referendum on each bill passed by the legislature (or part of each bill – referendums on parts of a bill are possible under the California Constitution). Could the initiative and referendum process be destroyed by trivialization?
Where is the petition for P.R. and A.V. in CA — to end the party hack madness in the regime ???
In California, and probably most states, a signer of a petition can be his or her own circulator. That means the individual signs in two places on the form.
Do initiative proponents photocopy the original petitions and then file the originals? If the original was electronically signed, what is sent to the proponent, and what do they file with the county election officials?
Is it legal to pay someone to circulate a petition which only they sign? The paid circulator could electronically sign the petition, then electronically sign that he had witnessed that signing, and then electronically sign his bill for payment for circulating the petition.
California doesn’t worry about distinguishing between the original of a petition and photocopies. They’re all good and they’re all interchangable.
That’s a very good question, about whether it would be legal to pay someone to circulate a petition that only that circulator signs, when that circulator signs both as a circulator and a signer. That’s a brain teaser. I don’t know.
Presumably it is legal to pay a circulator to target certain voters. Some counties might have more of a reputation for persnickety examination of petitions, such that proponents might have to spend a lot of time defending them, etc.
Proponents would also be concerned with duplicate or invalid signatures. It might be worthwhile to give incentives to target signers that the paid circulator knows absolutely have not already signed, and is eligible to sign.