{"id":13622,"date":"2020-08-17T14:22:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T18:22:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=13622"},"modified":"2020-08-17T14:22:59","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T18:22:59","slug":"nine-districts-might-have-a-problem-with-some-petition-signatures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=13622","title":{"rendered":"Nine Districts Might Have a Problem with Some Petition Signatures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Adam Pagnucco.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A June opinion from the office of Maryland\u2019s Attorney General indicates that the Nine Districts for MoCo group may have collected some electronic signatures in a manner that was inconsistent with state law and policy established by the State Board of Elections. Whether this impacts the group\u2019s ability to qualify for the ballot remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maryland law requires that both petition signers and petition circulators sign a ballot question or charter amendment petition. The signer and the circulator may be the same person. The circulator must sign and date an affidavit<\/a> that states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under penalties of perjury, I swear (or affirm) that: (a) I was at least 18 years old when each signature was obtained; (b) the information given to the left identifying me is true and correct; (c) I personally observed each signer as he or she signed this page; and (d) to the best of my knowledge and belief: (i) all signatures on this page are genuine; and (ii) all signers are registered voters of Maryland.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The circulator must also provide his or her name, residence address and telephone number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 22, the State Board of Elections established a temporary policy (SBE Policy 2020-01<\/a>) allowing electronic signatures on petitions due to the COVID-19 crisis. The policy states: \u201cFor an electronic signature to be valid under this policy, in addition to meeting the requirements of Elec. Law \u00a7 1-101(y), the signature must reflect an affirmative action by the signer to type or electronically sign or affix the signer\u2019s name on to the signature page.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key phrase here is \u201caffirmative action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Assistant Attorney General Andrea W. Trento, who was asked to provide an opinion on Nine Districts\u2019 system for gathering electronic signatures, the group\u2019s website through June asked voters to \u201cfill in [their] information by typing the info to populate the signature page\u2026 It then \u2018asks if you want to accept,\u2019 and if the voter does so, it \u2018states that you successfully signed the petition.\u2019\u2026 The signature and accompanying information are then populated both<\/em> into the signature field and<\/em> the circulator field. The voter does not see the circulator oath before signing, nor does the voter take any affirmative action to sign the circulator affidavit as distinct from the petition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accordingly, Trento opined that \u201cthese features are clearly inconsistent with Maryland law\u201d and \u201cthe format as described to me is not consistent with Policy 2020-01.\u201d Trento\u2019s opinion was shared with the Nine Districts group on June 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does this mean that Nine Districts\u2019 petition will be thrown out? Not necessarily. The Attorney General\u2019s opinion states that the group \u201cmay have changed its web form\u201d after discussions with the county board of elections. The group also gathered MANY physical signatures prior to the onset of COVID-19. But these are the kinds of technicalities that result in petitions being rejected. Even Robin Ficker, the undisputed master of charter amendment signature gathering, had a term limits petition thrown out in 2010<\/a>. (Six years later, Ficker got term limits on the ballot and passed it with 70% of the vote.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trento\u2019s opinion is reprinted below. (The home address for Nine Districts’ chairwoman has been redacted.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By Adam Pagnucco. A June opinion from the office of Maryland\u2019s Attorney General indicates that the Nine Districts for MoCo group may have collected some electronic signatures in a manner that was inconsistent with state law and policy established by the State Board of Elections. Whether this impacts the group\u2019s ability to qualify for the … Continue reading Nine Districts Might Have a Problem with Some Petition Signatures<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[151],"tags":[1545,1032,2393],"class_list":["post-13622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adam-pagnucco","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-ballot-questions","tag-nine-districts-for-moco"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-3xI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13622"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13630,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13622\/revisions\/13630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}