Integrity, training key to initiative process

Increased signature and district thresholds to our already challenging initiative process would certainly make grassroots petition drives virtually impossible. Most people can never understand the enormous amount of labor, coordination, intensity and inspiration it takes to recruit and organize volunteers to put something on the ballot in Idaho. Technology does aid communication and organization of volunteers, but it falls completely flat without genuine relationship-building and face-to-face conversations.

Organizing an infrastructure of volunteer teams in communities across the state and winning is the holy grail of citizen initiatives. It is extremely challenging, but it’s possible as we saw with the political miracle of Medicaid Expansion. It required acting on the right issue, in the right moment, with the right people and a strong moral compass in leadership to guide us to that achievement.

However, we would be deluding ourselves if we don’t recognize Big Money’s dominating presence in ballot initiatives across the country and the type of ethical mishaps that can thrive in the paid signature gathering environment if state legislatures and courts don’t enact and uphold legal guidelines. Circulators who are incentivized by making a buck rather than by making a difference can behave very differently with voters.

We learned from Proposition 1, the so-called “historical horse racing” initiative” that it takes $1.25 million to gather 59,000 valid signatures in 20 legislative districts in less than four months. While the inspiring story of the grassroots movement to expand Medicaid and the multi-million-dollar campaigns for and against Prop 1 are vastly different, there were instances where the two collided here in Kootenai County with Fieldworks, a paid signature gatherer firm that operates in several states.

For Medicaid Expansion, 100 volunteers in Kootenai County gathered more than 5,200 signatures, 4,000 of them deemed valid, on a budget of less than $500. Before the petition drive began, I studied all the rules governing the petition process and did everything in my power to honor those rules. Reclaim Idaho designed petition training materials that could be downloaded from their website. I was fortunate to work with experienced volunteers who were diligent about the rules and would call out any questionable instance.

Some of those rules are:

You must physically witness each person signing your petition. You cannot knowingly mislead or misrepresent what the proposed law is to gain signatures. You must respect someone’s wishes to not sign a petition and cannot aggressively badger them to sign. Adherence to these rules protects the public and upholds the integrity of a citizen initiative.

I heard Sen. Mary Souza say both in Boise during the SB 1159 vote and in the recent town hall organized by Reclaim Idaho that one of our volunteers pressured her to sign the petition and told her “you just want babies to die.” This provocative tale certainly did not happen with my interaction with her on April 2, 2018, when the CSPAN bus came to Coeur d’Alene and myself and a few volunteers were gathering signatures. We spoke with Sen. Souza and she applauded us for our civic engagement. I never directly asked her to sign but she advised she would not be doing so. I told her I understood because it was not in her values to sign this petition. There was absolutely no animosity from either side. I suspect the “you just want babies to die” story is a fabrication, but if it did happen, we deserve to know more. I invite her to detail the appearance of the person who said it and when it happened. I strongly value civility with those you disagree with and would never tolerate this type of petitioning behavior.

As to Rep. Jim Addis’s concerns about integrity in the initiative process, I can attest there are real-life stories here in Kootenai County that reflect poor training of paid signature gatherers and the dangers of misinformation when powerful interests are involved. Circulators in various states are incentivized to collect as many signatures as possible for anywhere between $1-$10 a pop. Anyone who has worked in the sales industry knows that some people with loose ethics, or are financially desperate, may aggressively badger or even lie when working solely on commission.

In Oregon, there are laws in place that can help with training and ethical issues. They can also help resolve Sen. Grow’s concern that “a higher bar is needed to prevent a “runaway” initiative situation seen in California. In California, ballot initiatives are the playground of millionaires and billionaires and paid circulators commonly solicit multiple petitions at once.

If this long debate continues into the next legislative session instead of discussing things that improve our lives like education and infrastructure, maybe we should propose an Idaho Initiative Integrity Act as a solution to include:

A requirement that paid signature gatherers study a Circulator Training Manual designed by the state of Idaho and complete a training session. In good faith, grassroots organizations should refer volunteers to those training materials as well before collecting signatures. Volunteers should not be in the situation of unknowingly violating petition laws.

Require paid circulators to register with the Idaho secretary of state before collecting signatures that would include a criminal records check. Anyone convicted of a criminal offense involving fraud, forgery, identity theft or have been issued a civil penalty for election law violations would be prohibited from collecting signatures. Registration would also include the coordination of a photograph and identification badge of the employee that must be worn while collecting signatures.

These proposed changes targeting integrity and training, rather than increased signature counts and districts, protect the public and do not infringe on the rights of Idahoans to organize initiatives. It’s legally unlikely that Idaho can ever go back to banning payment-per-signature as Oregon and five other states currently do. Justice Jim Jones explained at the town hall why that is so. In the unanimous 1988 Meyer v. Grant decision, the United States Supreme Court decided on the right of proponents of ballot measures to pay circulators to collect signatures based on the 1st and 14th Amendments.

If we look at initiative history, we learn that paid-signature bans were placed to put a check and balance on millionaires from buying their way on the ballot in their own self-interests. The dominance of Big Money is everywhere in our political system. Oddly, many will scorn the role of big or “dark” money with something they disagree with but turn a blind eye to what funds issues or candidates they support.

I believe the honest journey in reaching a goal is just as important as a successful outcome. What motivated me and hundreds of volunteers across the state was making a difference in people’s lives. I wish all members of our Legislature recognized that and focus instead on the real problems we face.

•••

Jessica Mahuron is a resident of Coeur d’Alene and former organizer for Medicaid expansion.