Collective bargaining for firefighters falls short of ballot

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A proposal seeking collective bargaining powers for fire and ambulance personnel failed to make Missouri's ballot partly because some petition signers apparently forged names, Secretary of State Matt Blunt said Tuesday.

Among the petition signatures invalidated were the names of several deceased Missouri voters.

For example, the name of Marvin W. Bowler appeared on a St. Louis County petition although he died more than two years ago, said Blunt spokesman Spence Jackson.

Several invalidated names were written in the same handwriting, Blunt's office said.

Other signatures were invalidated because they were submitted by people who had not registered with the state as petition circulators by the May 4 deadline for filing petitions, Blunt said.

"At this time it does not appear that the firefighters or any other union that supported this initiative was involved in any of these irregularities," Blunt said. "However, there are serious problems with the paperwork that has been submitted."

Blunt said his office will continue to investigate the practices of those who gathered the petition signatures.

"I know that the sponsors are disappointed, but I believe that the initiative petition process is important, and to retain it we need to make sure we are protecting the integrity of that system," Blunt said.

8 percent threshold

Supporters turned in more than 206,000 petition signatures. They needed just 125,029 valid signatures of registered voters to make the ballot. A proposed constitutional amendment must have signatures equal to 8 percent of the votes cast in the 2000 gubernatorial election in six of the nine congressional districts.

Blunt said the proposal failed to meet that threshold in the 9th Congressional District, where local election authorities invalidated 5,137 signatures and Blunt's office invalidated another 378.

That dropped the number of valid signatures in that district to 23,474 -- 226 short of the constitutional requirement.

John Corbett, president of the state chapter of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said he was disappointed by the failure of the measure to get on the ballot.

"We're shocked and obviously very disappointed," Corbett said Tuesday. "This is another terrible setback."

Corbett said that since the margin was close, firefighters would closely examine the stricken signatures.

Under state law, initiative supporters have 10 days to appeal Blunt's decision to the state Supreme Court.

The proposal's collective bargaining powers could be used to decide wages, working hours and all other terms of employment, but would not grant employees the right to strike.