HCS HB 1763 -- PETITION CIRCULATORS

SPONSOR:  Jones, 89 (Parson)

COMMITTEE ACTION:  Voted "do pass" by the Special Committee on
General Laws by a vote of 7 to 0.

This substitute changes the laws regarding petition circulators.
In its main provisions, the substitute:

(1)  Requires petition circulators to be citizens of the United
States and Missouri residents;

(2)  Prohibits the payment of petition circulators on a
per-signature basis;

(3)  Prohibits petition circulators from soliciting or receiving
signatures for two or more petitions simultaneously;

(4)  Prohibits the use of regular mail or the Internet to receive
signatures;

(5)  Requires petition circulators to supply information to the
Office of the Secretary of State verifying their eligibility and
requires that petition circulators swear by affidavit that they
will comply with the conditions of the substitute;

(6)  Specifies that anyone violating the provisions of the
substitute will be guilty of a class A misdemeanor; and

(7)  Specifies that signatures collected by unregistered
circulators will not be counted.

FISCAL NOTE:  No impact on state funds in FY 2009, FY 2010, and
FY 2011.

PROPONENTS:  Supporters say that the bill ensures petition
initiatives to amend the Missouri Constitution will be conducted
by Missouri residents.  Recently, Missouri has had an increase in
the number of ballot initiatives as a result of out-of-state
residents attempting to change the constitution by ballot
initiative.  The bill also prevents signature collectors from
being able to bait and switch people by disallowing the
collection of signatures on two petitions simultaneously.

Testifying for the bill were Representatives Parson and Deeken;
Missouri Restaurant Association; and Missouri National Education
Association.

OPPONENTS:  There was no opposition voiced to the committee.

Missouri House of Representatives
94th General Assembly, 2nd Regular Session
Last Updated October 15, 2008 at 3:11 pm