Pay-per-signature restrictions rejected by Missouri House

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri senators rejected a proposal Monday that would have prohibited initiative petition sponsors from paying circulators for each signature they collect.

Senators stripped the pay-per-signature ban from a bill that imposes several other new restrictions on citizen initiatives.

The election-year legislation comes after the supporters of several initiatives paid professional out-of-state petition circulators to solicit signatures from Missouri voters during the past several months. Some signature gatherers, holding several clipboards at a time, were accused of misleading people into signing petitions they didn't necessarily support or understand.

Still remaining in the bill are provisions that would bar non-Missourians from gathering signatures and stop people from passing around petitions for more than one ballot measure at a time.

Sen. Bill Stouffer, R-Napton, led the effort to remove the pay-per-signature ban from the bill. He cited a March ruling by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that struck down an Ohio law making it a felony to pay people for gathering signatures for ballot measures except based on their time worked. The appeals court said the Ohio law violated First Amendment free speech rights.

Supporters of the ban had noted that the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis upheld a North Dakota law banning per-signature payments in 2001.

Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington, had described the pay-per-signature ban as the key part of the legislation.

"It's a breeding ground for fraud if you pay per signature," Engler said.

Senators quit Monday without voting on the overall legislation. If passed, the measure would go back to the House, which previously approved a version banning pay-per-signature initiatives. The session ends Friday.