Judge rejects request by term-limit backers

By Jay F. Marks

Published: September 8, 2007

A federal judge on Friday struck down a group's efforts to use professional petition circulators.Yes on Term Limits Inc. had hoped to use professional circulators to gather enough signatures to get its proposal on the ballot next year.

But U.S. District Judge Tim Leonard in Oklahoma City sided with state officials who argued the law allows Oklahoma residents, not national interests, to set state policy.

Attorney James Dunn, the chairman of the term limits group, declined to comment late Friday afternoon because he had not read the ruling.

•State law has prohibited out-of-state circulators since 1969.

•The use of such circulators led the state Supreme Court last year to toss out an initiative petition for a taxpayer bill of rights.

About the request

•Term limits supporters filed an initiative petition Aug. 16 with the secretary of state seeking to enact two-term limits on lieutenant governor, state auditor and inspector, attorney general, state treasurer, labor commissioner and schools superintendent.

•They need signatures from at least 138,970 registered Oklahoma voters within 90 days for the proposal to reach the polls.

•Robert Murphy, a group vice president, called collecting signatures "the most grueling task in politics” last month. He said the group needs "professional signature gatherers” to get the proposal on the ballot.

State attorneys presented "overwhelming evidence” during the hearing that calls the integrity of those professionals into question, the judge wrote.

He noted a signature collector admitted to using a false address on petitions he circulated in Colorado and failed to register with the secretary of state in Missouri before circulating petitions there.

The Montana Supreme Court also found that Rittberg used "bait and switch” tactics to get people to sign three different petitions by telling them they were signing copies of just one.

"The evidence reflected that, by flouting the very method by which the people's legislative power is envisioned to be exercised, the non-resident circulators make a mockery of the initiative petition process,” Leonard wrote.

"Oklahoma has a compelling interest in protecting and policing both the integrity and the reliability of its initiative process,” he wrote.

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