The leader of an organization paid to get political issues and candidates onto ballots across the United States has been accused in a felony conspiracy indictment of illegally using out-of-state circulators during a petition drive in Oklahoma.
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"I'm innocent. This is ridiculous,” said Susan E. Johnson, president of National Voter Outreach, as she was led from court Tuesday in handcuffs.
Also indicted:
•Paul Jacob, who describes himself as a national leader in the movement to establish term limits on politicians.
•Rick Carpenter of Oklahomans in Action.
About the indictmentOklahoma's multicounty grand jury last week indicted the three over their involvement in the 2005 petition drive to get a so-called taxpayer bill of rights on the ballot. The indictment was made public Tuesday.
Johnson, 47, of Michigan; Jacob, 47, of Virginia; and Carpenter, 43, of Tulsa are charged with conspiring to defraud the state.
Grand jurors alleged the three enlisted out-of state circulators to come to Oklahoma "with full knowledge and understanding” the circulators intended to leave once the drive was over.
Under state law, a circulator must be a bona fide Oklahoma resident over 18 years old.
"We view this charge as very serious,” said prosecutor Joel-lyn McCormick, an assistant attorney general. "Oklahomans are supposed to decide for Oklahomans, not people from Minnesota or Massachusetts or Nevada or the numerous other places where circulators were brought in from.”
Carpenter also faces a felony count of filing a fraudulent initiative petition.
The maximum punishment on the conspiracy count is 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Background
The state Supreme Court last year threw out the taxpayer bill of rights petition, ruling more than 60 out-of-state circulators were used to collect signatures in violation of the law.
The Supreme Court found circulators "engaged in outright fraud” by using false Oklahoma addresses in an attempt to satisfy Oklahoma law. One circulator was a foreigner, it said.
The accused organization
The Supreme Court identified National Voter Outreach as the organization paid to manage the process. The Supreme Court said "it is abundantly clear that the wrongdoing extended all the way to ... Johnson.”
The Supreme Court also said, "Evidently, NVO has been involved in approximately 10 other petition drives in this state.”
A federal judge last month upheld the constitutionality of Oklahoma's ban on out-of-state circulators. The decision is being appealed.
Reaction
•Johnson has said she thought she complied with Oklahoma's vague laws, even checking with the state Election Board on what it takes to be considered an Oklahoma resident. "These actions are considered ‘illegal' in hindsight,” Johnson said. "Not even public officials understood the law.”
•Jacob said: "This is what happens when people petition their government? Is this America? What is going on? This is outrageous! This is an attack on the First Amendment of our country. ... It will not stand.”
•Attorney General Drew Edmondson said the indictment is not politically motivated. "We're charged with enforcing the laws that are on the books. We don't make them up,” Edmondson said.
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OK commenter number 1. Are you also outraged that out of state lobbiests come here and influence law? I doubt so. Oklahoma citizens signed the tabor petition. Nebraska used to have this same vague residency requirement until a judge declared he didn't care if an alien handed you a petition as long as you were a registered NE voter. Wisdom!
Three cheers! What some are missing here is this was set up for Oklahoma residents, not large outside intrest groups to change Oklahoma law. To see what happens to states when this happens, just look at Washington State where a large animal rights group came in with their signature collectors and big money for media coverage. They changed the law for trapping moles. What was the result? Millions of dollars were lost for repair of damage to farmers, golf courses, state parks, dams and common people. This type of action is reserved for Oklahoma residents and yes it is hard to do with only Oklahoma signatures. We don't want to give big money the right to change our laws.
that last guy is a moron, the tabor was written wrong when it was originally issued and it has been revised and will once again be in place in a few years, it was a temporary suspension to be rewritten due to poor local government, any colorado citizen you talk to will tell you that they would vote for it again. tabor is a very good thing for any government, and the state of oklahoma is trying to make an example out of people who were doing nothing but exercising there 1st amendment, putting a residency restriction on free speech as an american in a state other then your own is unreasonable restriction on free speech. there is nothing wrong with the belief that the american people should have control of there own government in which things were ment to be in the beggining. now our elected officials dont do anything we tell them. if it was such a bad thing why did so many people willingly sign to put it on the ballot with no misrepresentation. I myself am a professional petitioner, but i dont work oklahoma.
Nice to see what the Oklahoma gov't will do to keep term limits and other positive changes from taking place. It wouldn't matter if they lived next door to the AG they would have found a reason to squash any attempt at change.
I wonder what law would be cited if the circulators were Oklahomans? To redress the gov't for greivences is a basic constitutional right. No wonder we don't see many petitions in Oklahoma. Amazing.
I very much appreciate Mr. Clay's demonstration of biased reporting. But then I always appreciate whenever one brings clarity to their bias.
Whenever anyone writes, "So-called" in an effort to invalidate the hundreds of thousands of people who signed a petition for less government spending, it's fairly clear the person writing feels free to both disparage others, and view oneself from some lofty perch.
Which is why I appreciate anyone writing their bias. I like a good, heads-up.
That said, I don't believe 90% of the Oklahomans I met this summer while falling in love with the city, the Skirvin, the ballpark and the Women's Pilot Museum, will appreciate Mr. Clay's perch; or that he hoisted himself on one.
Of the 90% of the Oklahomans I met during my three trips to Tulsa and Oklahoma City in favor of less government spending, I confess to wondering about the remaining 10%.
This is the toughest law in the country regarding signature collectors. This should keep out of state tax cut activists out of Oklahoma. Colorado had enacted TABOR by initiative petition in the early 1990's and chose to remove it because it was getting in the way of economic growth do to smaller than expected tax revenues. Mr, Rich, a multi-millionaire real estate developer from New York City, has funded these type inititives with millions of his own dollars.
"TABOR” is short for taxpayer bill of rights, a proposed amendment to the state constitution. It never made it on the ballot.
It would have set limits on the growth of state spending and would have required any surplus funds to be placed in a constitutional emergency fund.
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Whenever anyone writes, "So-called" in an effort to invalidate the hundreds of thousands of people who signed a petition for less government spending, it's fairly clear the person writing feels free to both disparage others, and view oneself from some lofty perch.
Which is why I appreciate anyone writing their bias. I like a good, heads-up.
That said, I don't believe 90% of the Oklahomans I met this summer while falling in love with the city, the Skirvin, the ballpark and the Women's Pilot Museum, will appreciate Mr. Clay's perch; or that he hoisted himself on one.
Of the 90% of the Oklahomans I met during my three trips to Tulsa and Oklahoma City in favor of less government spending, I confess to wondering about the remaining 10%.
State personnel?