{"id":41,"date":"2003-07-08T08:16:22","date_gmt":"2003-07-08T13:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=41"},"modified":"2003-07-08T08:16:22","modified_gmt":"2003-07-08T13:16:22","slug":"petition_of_gri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/07\/08\/petition_of_gri.html","title":{"rendered":"Petition of grievances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concerned that someone out there is trying to use petitions to put forward a ballot proposal, candidate, or recall effort that you don’t like? The answer, it seems, is simple: just hire up all the petition collectors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Most folks don’t realize that most petition collectors are hired professionals, whose job is to find good spots, get folks to sign, and make sure the signatures are valid (complete, legible, from the right county, etc.). This is occasionally highlighted by opponents of a given petition (“They’re not a grass roots campaign — they’re hiring professional petition gatherers to do all this work!” — as if the signatures themselves are somehow thus invalidated), but pretty much everyone does it. It’s too difficult to organize volunteers on a widespread basis, let alone the problems with petitions that poor management of them can produce.<\/p>\n

But there’s not an endless supply of petition gatherers out there. Which means that in some cases, opponents have attempted to derail petitions by hiring out of that limited pool to circulate (sometimes meaningless) counter-petitions.<\/p>\n

Attempting to ‘buy up’ the signature-gathering labor pool in order to prevent a measure from reaching the ballot has been a strategy used in local elections as well. The city of Los Angeles witnessed an initiative battle between a coalition of environmentalists and Occidental Petroleum Corporation over oil drilling on the coast of Pacific Palisades. A proposal by environmentalists to ban any oil drilling (Proposition O) on the coast was countered by an oil industry proposal to allow drilling but with certain restrictions and safeguards (Proposition P). Occidental Petroleum enlisted the signature-gathering services of both Kimball Petition Management and American Petition Consultants with the clear understanding that neither firm would assist the qualification efforts of the anti-oil drilling initiative. Unable to engineer a sufficient paid circulation drive, proponents of Proposition O had to resort to the expensive method of direct mail petition circulation — a very uncommon means of signature gathering at the local level.<\/p>\n

Interesting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Concerned that someone out there is trying to use petitions to put forward a ballot proposal, candidate, or recall effort that you don’t like? The answer, it seems, is simple:…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135719,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/19\/trump-shuts-government-petition-site-temporarily.html","url_meta":{"origin":41,"position":0},"title":"Trump shuts down government petition site “temporarily”","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Dec-17 7:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The \"We the People\" site, set up by the Obama Administration in 2011, allows people to online-petition the federal government, with a commitment by that government to respond (even with only a comment) to any petitions that get 100K virtual signatures. The Trump Administration -- which has ignored 17 petitions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Trump-again.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9912,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/11\/ballot_propositions_for_c.html","url_meta":{"origin":41,"position":1},"title":"Ballot propositions for Colorado","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Oct-06 9:40am","format":false,"excerpt":"Got my Colorado ballot proposal book the other day. Here's what I think. Your mileage may (will almost certainly) vary. Amendment 38: Petitions: The thrust of this amendment is to...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2006"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2006","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2006"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5120,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/29\/petitions.html","url_meta":{"origin":41,"position":2},"title":"Petitions","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Oct-03 9:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In other local news ... ... Tracy Baker, the county clerk to whom I have to write automobile registration checks every year, dagnabbit, looks like he actually will be recalled...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31423,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/19\/one-of-the-sillier-yet-amusing-white-house-petitions-out-there.html","url_meta":{"origin":41,"position":3},"title":"One of the sillier, yet amusing, White House petitions out there","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 19-Nov-12 3:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Heh. Embedded Link Consolidate the Department of Defense and the Census Bureau into a single Department of Kicking A** and Taking Names. | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government we petition the obama administration to: Consolidate the Department of Defense and the Census Bureau into a single Department\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32630,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/02\/25\/artificially-sweetened-milk-is-not-really-milk.html","url_meta":{"origin":41,"position":4},"title":"Artificially sweetened milk is not really milk","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 25-Feb-13 9:40pm","format":false,"excerpt":"But if the dairy industry has its way, you'll never know if that's what you're getting. \u00a0Unless, of course, you're one of those people allergic to aspertame, or you the aftertaste of such things distinctively bad. 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