By Bob Katzen

The Senate 34-3, approved an amendment that would require that when a ballot question group pays people or a company to gather signatures to qualify the question to be on the ballot, the petition must include a disclosure, in a manner to be determined by the secretary of state, which clearly informs potential signers that the petition is being distributed by a paid signature gatherer.

Another provision prohibits pay-per-signature arrangements in this signature gathering process and specifically prohibits any bonus pay or incentives, paid to the signature gatherer, which is contingent upon the number of signatures collected. A violation of this ban would be punishable by a fine of between $100 and $10,000 and each signature collected would be considered to be a separate offense.in violation of this section.

“By prohibiting pay-per-signature arrangements, we will drastically reduce the unique financial incentive for signature gatherers to mislead voters into signing petitions and ensure that initiative campaigns can still collect signatures based on the merits of the policy,” said sponsor Sen. Barry Finegold (D-Andover).

“Individuals should not be restricted from engaging in political activity that is legal,” said Sen. Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton), one of three senators to vote against the amendment. “The proponent of the amendment says that this will stop fraudulent activity, but fraudulent activity is already illegal and published on the signature petition. My position revolves around freedom of speech, where people have the ability to petition their government through a ballot process. The ballot process includes payment to collect signatures in various forms, and I don’t believe it’s constitutional to ban that.”

(A “Yes” vote is for the amendment. A “No” vote is against it.)

Sen. Patricia Jehlen Yes

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