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Tallahassee Democrat, October 21, 2008

Signature dispute arises over proposed amendment

Supporters of a constitutional amendment that would let communities vote on big growth issues claimed on Monday to have enough petition signatures for a spot on Florida's 2010 ballot.

Not so fast, opponents replied, arguing that backers will need more signatures after what's expected to be record voter turnout Nov. 4.

The proposed amendment would require a city or county referendum before local governments could change their comprehensive plans.

Business interests have already waged a long legal and political battle to keep it off the ballot but environmentalists have fought five years to round up enough voter signatures for a statewide showdown.

Whether the Florida Hometown Democracy amendment goes before voters in two years could be decided by the state Supreme Court in a dispute over how many signatures are required.

"FHD needed to achieve 611,009 verified signatures statewide and also achieve 8 percent of registered voters voting in the last presidential election in at least 13 of 25 congressional districts in the state," said Joyce Tarnow, president of Floridians for a Sustainable Population.

She said county elections supervisors had certified 611,753 voter signatures out of more than 850,000 submitted by the campaign.

"They are embarrassing themselves," replied Ryan Houck, director of Floridians for Smarter Growth, a campaign committee opposing the amendment. "They've crossed the 50-yard line and decided to call it a touchdown."

The Florida constitution's initiative provision requires signatures equal to 8 percent of the voter turnout in the preceding presidential election. The 8 percent threshold must be met in half of the state's 25 congressional districts.

For the past presidential election, in 2004, the 8 percent requirement is 611,009 signatures. But Houck and Barney Bishop, president of Associated Industries of Florida, said that number is about to increase as votes are counted Nov. 4.

Bishop estimated that the number could be as high as 800,000 signatures.

Tallahassee attorney Ross Burnaman, an author of Hometown Democracy, said the campaign is not taking a position on ballot access. But he said Secretary of State Kurt Browning's Web site last week showed sufficient verified signatures and that the congressional-district requirement was met.

"Because our signatures were submitted and have been validated by the supervisors of elections and tallied by the division of elections in Tallahassee, we made the numbers before the 2008 presidential election and ergo the date to use is the 2004 presidential election," said John Hedrick, the Sierra Florida representative in the campaign. "We got what we need and no rule and no statute and no interpretation by the Division of Elections trumps that."

Jennifer Davis, a spokeswoman for Browning, said the department's legal staff would advise on which turnout to count. She said "it would be up to the Supreme Court at that point. They're going to have to go through several points of review" before the next election.