Eliot Spitzer, seeking the Democratic nomination for New York City Comptroller, needed 3,750 valid signatures of registered Democrats by July 11. Since he started getting signatures only five days before the deadline, his campaign paid petitioners $800 per day. New York state election law forbids paying petitioners on a per-signature basis. See this story, written by a college student who helped collect the signatures. The student reports that he collected over 200 signatures in his two days of work.
The Spitzer campaign submitted approximately 27,000 signatures on the deadline. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
Petitioners are the persons who sign a petition.
You actually mean Eliot Spitzer paid solicitors $800 per day, which is quite a bit less than he reportedly paid in the past. Of course these latter solicitors were expected to walk the streets while providing their services.
Jim Riley said: “You actually mean Eliot Spitzer paid solicitors $800 per day, which is quite a bit less than he reportedly paid in the past. Of course these latter solicitors were expected to walk the streets while providing their services.”
The more common terms are petition circulators or petition signature gatherers.
Also, I heard that a minimum of 100 signatures per day was required to get paid the $800, and that this rate was only offered toward the end of the petition drive.