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St. Petersburg Times, August 9, 2007

Petition-drive clock is reset

Opponents to ballot measures get more time.
By STEVE BOUSQUET, Times Staff Writer

TALLAHASSEE - A new law that allows voters to remove their signatures from initiative petitions is on the books with a provision that gives opponents more time to fight measures aiming for the 2008 ballot.

The law took effect Aug. 1, and for the first time gives voters 150 days to strip their signatures from a ballot initiative from the date voters first signed.

Both sides in hotly contested initiative campaigns expect more spirited competition as they battle over signatures, the lifeblood of any citizen initiative campaign.
Groups seeking to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot must gather about 611,000 valid voter signatures by next Feb. 1.

The biggest petition fight in Florida involves an effort called Hometown Democracy, which would require voter approval for future land use changes. It has strong opposition from the state chamber of commerce, developers and other business groups.

The state Division of Elections, in adopting rules to carry out the petition-revocation part of the law, decided that the signature revocation clock began ticking 150 days before the law took effect last Wednesday.

That gives opponents of Hometown Democracy more time to persuade voters to revoke signatures.

Instead of starting Aug. 1, opponents can reach back 150 days and solicit revocations from every voter who signed a petition since about March 1.
The elections division didn't always see it that way. At a July 23 hearing, Gary Holland, an attorney for the division, said the law should be applied from Aug. 1 forward.

"We aim to ensure that the rule not be read to give retroactive effect," Holland announced. "A voter may only revoke a signature on an initiative petition that he or she signed after Aug. 1, 2007."

A few days later, Secretary of State Kurt Browning acknowledged that the agency changed its view after internal discussion.

"It's clearly wrong," argued attorney Russ Burnaman, vice president of Florida Hometown Democracy. "It was a last-minute re-interpretation of the statute contrary to the general rule that laws operate prospectively."