Maryland Hearing on Bill to Require Petition Signers to Show ID
February 24th, 2009The Maryland Senate Committee on Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs holds a hearing on SB 445 on Thursday, February 26, at 1 p.m. This is the bill to require petition signers to show photo ID to the circulator before signing the petition.
February 24th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Richard:
Are there any states which allows signatures on petitions for independent or 3rd party candidate ballot access to be collected electronically? Has there ever been a bill introduced in a legislature that would have allowed such? Some thought ought to be given to legislation which would allow an independent or 3rd party candidate “recognized” as a bona fide candidate by the state or local office regulating the ballot access, to have a link with the election official’s office where a voter could pull down the candidate’s or party’s “petition” and sign it electronically. This way “signatures” could not only be collected and “turned in” but counted instantly. Safeguards could be built in where “signatures” could be validated just as they are for those manually collected. As one who is computer “challenged,” I still know there is software which would allow this.
February 24th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
There was a bill introduced in Virginia to try it out (pilot project), but it didn’t make any headway. It was HB 2438. It lost in the House Privileges & Elections Committee on Feb. 6 by 15-7. It was by Delegate David Poisson (D-Sterling).
February 25th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Re: signatures on petitions …. to be collected electronically?
This idea has been discussed in NC and legal council has been that the best way to approach this is to collect electronic petition and submit them to the BOE and if they throw out the petition challenge the BOE in court.
Kai Schwandes, Green Party North Carolina, delegate GNC
February 25th, 2009 at 8:22 am
One big problem with trying to get people to sign petitions on-line is that they have to actually KNOW that the petition is circulating on-line, KNOW what site they have to visit to sign it, and then be inclined to actually do so.