In re Initiative Petition No. 379, State Question No.726 (2006)
From Judgepedia
2006
Justice Joseph M. Watt wrote the majority opinion, which invalidated citizens' efforts to place a Tax Payer Bill of Rights (TABOR) on the Oklahoma ballot due to the use of out-of-state petition circulators by the initiative's supporters. ISSUE:
In that case, even though the Attorney General's Office, as plaintiff, did not raise the issue, the court framed the issue as whether the "petition [was] so tainted with illegality as to require the entire petition to be struck as invalid."
HOLDING:
The court found that "[t]he pervasive pattern of wrongdoing and fraud which, combinde with the resistance to discovery and continued secrecy surrounding the operation, require TABOR to be stricken in its entirety. Nothing less will protect the integrity of the initiative process."
REASONING:
In arriving at that decision, the court reasoned as follows:
- (1) "TABOR was not an Oklahoma initiative , circulated by Oklahomans interested in changing Oklahoma law. Contributions to the effort came largely from out-of-state entities."
- Even though the right of the initiative is deemed fundamental, an individual must be a bona fide Oklahoma resident to qualify as a circulator.
- (2) The premise that a circulator in Oklahoma with the intent to stay only during the petition drive is a resident was a premise "not supported by Oklahoma law."
- (3) Circulation of petitions by out-of-state residents constitutes "corruption," which must be prevented.
- (4) When disptutes over signatures arise, residency requirements for petition circulators ensure that the circulators will be Oklahoma residents who are subject to service for appearance in Oklahoma courts.
- (5) "NVO and its out-of-state circulators were paid, imported entities in search of signatories for their own economic benefit-not for the benefit of Oklahoma citizens or their laws. Both Oklahoma's initiative process and its voters deserve more. The importation of out-of-state residents to obtain signatures for a ballot measure in an Oklahoma state election paid for by out-of-state contributors in which these people have no interest is illegal, fraudulent and unsettling." (bolded for emphasis within the decision itself).
- (6) "The primary purpose of the statutory scheme is to protect the public from corrupting influences that might be brought to bear upon the electoral process by agents who are financially interested in the petition's success. This protection can be fully accorded only if petitions which are tainted by illegal circulation may be barred from the public ballot. If the State's sole remedy is merely a criminal prosecution, then the public will be forced to bear the burden of dealing with the very sort of petition which the statutes seek to prevent. Were we to decree the validity of such a petition, we would be affirmatively sanctioning the type of corruption which the statutes outlaw and we would be depriving the public of the protection which the Legislature has conferred. This we will not do. Therefore, we determine that the initiative petition must be struck in its entirety."
- (7) "There was some evidence in the cockfighting petition- In re Initiative Petition No. 365, of the participation of out-of-state circulators involved in the signature collection process. 7,542 signatures collected by a single circulator who was determined not to be a qualified elector because he was not an Oklahoma resident were struck from the signature count. The cockfighting case was decided in 2001. Five years later, with the circulation of the TABOR petition, in excess of 57,000 votes are being disqualified on the same basis with evidence that there were in excess of 60 out-of-state circulators involved. There is no way to determine with any sort of accuracy exactly how many signatures were collected by these out-of state residents as the petition supporters did everything possible to avoid discovery-even the successful discovery was largely unusable because deponents essentially “couldn't remember” or “didn't know” the information attempting to be elicited. Most certainly, if we do not take the opportunity to address the issue of the effect of out-of-state intrusions into a process reserved to bona fide residents of the State of Oklahoma, the problem will only grow and will present itself as a part of essentially every citizen circulation."
- (8) "Excluding all petitions associated with the TABOR initiative does not disenfranchise voters. Rather, it upholds the integrity of the initiative process that has been undermined by criminal wrongdoing and fraud. The Legislature has imposed strong sanctions for such wrongdoing. NVO and its out-of-state circulators committed much more than mere technical violations of Oklahoma law-they attempted to destroy the safeguards by which signatures are obtained and verified. Nothing less than the strong sanction of voiding the entire petition will serve to deter similar activity in the future and to protect the precious right of the initiative to Oklahoma voters."[1]
POTENTIAL FLAWS IN THE COURT'S REASONING:
For potential flaws in the court's reasoning, see this link for the discussion page or click on the discussion tab at the top of this page.
