BALLOT INITITATIVE PETITIONS IN CIRCULATION AROUND STATE

Five initiative petitions are being circulated in Missouri by groups that want to get their issues on the November 2000 ballot.

If those groups are successful, Missouri voters could decide whether to repeal the death penalty, restrict billboard advertising, authorize publicly funded political campaigns, allow veterans organizations and other groups to operate video gambling machines, and approve collective bargaining for firefighters and ambulance personnel.

But getting on the ballot is easier said than done in a state which has had the initiative petition process since 1875. While the process has been allowed for more than a century, there have been some statutory changes along the way.

To get an issue on the ballot, petitions bearing thousands of signatures of registered voters must be turned into the secretary of state's office. That office is responsible for checking the petitions to weed out invalid signatures.

Petitioners need voters' signatures equal to a certain percentage of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election in six of the nine congressional districts in the state.

For constitutional amendments, the percentage is 8 percent. For changes to state law, the figure is 5 percent.

The actual number of signatures needed varies, depending on the districts targeted by petitioners.

In general, some 70,000 valid signatures are needed to get a measure on the ballot to change state law. More than 100,00 valid signatures are needed to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

Before a petition can be circulated, the petition form must first be approved by the secretary of state and the attorney general. The secretary of state then prepares a summary statement, which is subject to approval by the attorney general. The state auditor prepares a fiscal impact statement, which also is subject to approval by the attorney general.

When both statements are approved, they become the official ballot title, said Jim Grebing, spokesman for Secretary of State Bekki Cook.

Missouri law provides for a 10-day period for legal challenges to be filed to the ballot title.

Issues proposed by initiative petition can only be submitted to voters in the November general elections, Grebing said.

Getting an issue on the ballot is difficult, says Karl Kruse.

Kruse is executive director of the Save Our Scenery 2000 Campaign Committee, which has been circulating a petition since August that would increase the authority of local governments to regulate outdoor advertising and largely prohibit construction of new billboards."The requirements for initiatives in Missouri are onerous in that you have to get a lot of signatures in six of the nine congressional districts," he said. "You have to be pretty much all over the state."In some states, there's no requirement that petitions be collected from different geographic areas.

In 1996, 13 initiative petitions were approved for circulation. Only four were submitted to the secretary of state for approval. Of those four, only three ended up with the necessary signatures to get on the ballot.

In 1998, the secretary of state's office approved five petitions for circulation. Two were submitted for approval and both made it on the ballot.

Kruse's organization tried to get a billboard measure on the November 1998 ballot, but failed to collect enough signatures. "We started a little bit too late," he said.

Last time, the group sought a constitutional amendment. This time, it is seeking to amend the state's billboard law, a move that requires the collection of fewer signatures on petitions."We need 72,000 valid signatures," said Kruse. Getting that many requires petitioners to obtain at least 100,000 signatures in order to account for the ones that prove to be invalid."You need at least a 30 percent cushion," he said. "Our goal is 110,000 minimum."In contrast, Kruse said, the group needed to collect about 160,000 to 170,000 last time in order to ensure getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

It's common to have people sign initiative petitions only to discover later that they had moved and hadn't changed their voting address. There also are cases where signatures are illegible.

Kruse said his group has collected 72,000 signatures in 15 weeks and should have no trouble getting sufficient valid signatures by the May 7 deadline.

The deadline used to be four months prior to November elections, but voters in 1998 approved a constitutional amendment that requires petitions to be turned in six months prior to the general election.

Getting an issue on the ballot takes more than volunteers, said Kruse. It takes money.

Kruse said his group has about 400 volunteers. But most of the signatures will be collected by paid petitioners.

There are companies whose business is collecting signatures for initiative petitions."They have crews they bring in or they hire local people," he said. Petitioners are paid from $50 cents to $2 a signature. The higher the pay, the faster it gets done, he said."We may get 10,000 to 15,000 signatures with our volunteers," said Kruse. The rest will come from hired petitioners.

Kruse said a group can spend $100,000 to $200,000 to get a measure to change state law on the ballot. A constitutional amendment could cost $300,000 or $400,000.

As Kruse sees it, professional petitioners are a must for groups that want to get their issues on the election ballot.

Missouri Voters for Fair Elections is paying its petitioners directly rather than hiring an outside firm.

It is hard to get people to stand outside in cold weather collecting voter signatures on petitions, said Ruth Steinmetz, coordinator for the group which is seeking to get public financing for state legislative campaigns and those of candidates for statewide office. Steinmetz' group wants to pay for the funding by increasing the corporate franchise tax, generating an estimated $13 million a year."It is a lot easier to have petitioners out there on a paid basis," she said.

Grebing said the initiative petition process makes for good government. "The initiative petition process in Missouri is good because it allows citizens to pass laws and to change the constitution independent of the Legislature."The process, he said, ensures that only those measures that have some statewide support will get on the ballot.