initiative signature gather lying about anti-gay initiative - heads up

[FreeState]

I was just approached by a initiative signature gather that lied to me about the petition. I did not sign it - she told me it would LEGALIZE gay marriage - when I asked to look at the initiative it was the new one to BAN equal marriage. She was lying to get a signature (this is a very gay part of SD). She refused to give me her name saying only she worked for "VIctory" and she had no phone number for them. She was also getting signatures for a city ordinance here. I did take her picture on my phone however. I have contacted Equality CA and my city reps etc. Just a heads up - dont sign anything without reading it....

(cross posted this in the GLBT forum too)

[hvn_nbr_2]

1. It's gotten to the point that I just assume signature gatherers are lying.

If it's not an initiative that I've already heard about from some organization that I trust, then I assume they're lying.

[Irishonly]

2. I haven't see the anti-gay one yet

The last time I went to the store I was approached by an initiative signature gatherer. I had head about the anti-gay one so the first thing out of my mouth was to ask her which ones she had. The anti-gay initiative was not in her stack although the parental permission for abortion was. The poor woman seemed shocked when I refused to sign. Good for you for contacting Equality CA.

[proud patriot]

3. I was asked to sign that one today

along with 3 others .

I didn't sign any of them .

[Auggie]

4. Thanks for the alert

[Hope4all]

6. Nice alert

Thanks.

[Vet31203]

5. Very dirty

Hoping we can pick up some delegates in California. End all this hate politics of the GOP once and for all.

William J Meyers for House 2008

[xxqqqzme]

7. We had a repesentative from Human Rights

at our Central Committee meeting on Monday. This initiative is just horrible. It does not surprise me they are trying to get signatures by lying.

[Silver Gaia]

8. Here's another dirty tactics story...

I saw a group of petition gatherers on campus yesterday as I was walking by on my way to class. The first initiative on their clipboards was one about renewable energy, at least that's what I heard one of them say. I could see that the language describing this initiative was visible, so could be read, although the guy was trying to get people to just sign it quickly based on his verbal description. But then, they'd flip up to the next one, the language of which was hidden by the way the clipboard was arranged, and just say "Now, sign this." And then another and another and another, just saying "And sign this..." with each flip of pages. They were acting as if these were all a part of the first initiative. But they weren't, of course. They had a huge stack of initiatives on their clipboards.

One person I saw was just signing them as the guy flipped up the pages and told him to. Another person I overheard questioning this, and I heard the guy explain, in regard to one of the hidden ones, "Oh, this one just would require that parents be notified if a minor seeks an abortion." She said, "NO, I won't sign that," and walked off. I have a feeling the initiative you're talking about was probably buried in there, too. Damn. This is just DIRTY.

Unfortunately, what I'd seen didn't really hit me until I was entering my classroom, and I didn't have time to go back at that point. If I see them again, I think I may try to talk to one of them so that I can be SURE of what I saw. But beyond that, I really don't know what's the best thing to do. Anyone know if there's anything I can DO about this besides just confront the petition gatherers (which I figure, would actually accomplish zilch)? I'd like to get them kicked off campus, but beyond that, whoever is paying and training these guys to do this needs to be stopped. Is there someone I should report something like this to? Someone at Bowen's office maybe?

[Frances]

9. Is there a way to abolish initiatives?

It's not just the lying.

It's the fact that in order to get an iniative on the ballot, you have to pay people to collect signatures.

Then, once the initiative in on the ballot, you have to pay for advertising, which is prohibitively expensive in CA for honest-to-God grassroots organizations.

Iniatives are just a way for really rich groups to get what they want in my opinion.

[xxqqqzme]

14. Something needs to be done.

After being soundly defeated twice ('04 & '06), the parental notification initiative is back again! Once these are defeated, they should not be allowed back on the ballot for five years. I remember we went through several successive rounds of school voucher propositions before the RW finally gave up and started stirring the parental notification pot.

We probably need an initiative to get something done though.

[slackmaster]

15. You could start an initiative to abolish initiatives

Really, there is a good reason for initiatives:

The Legislature spends way too much time doing things other than what the people want them to do.

Elect a more effective, responsive Legislature, and the need for initiatives will diminish.

[LeftyMom]

10. I caught a paid gatherer lying by omission yesterday.

I went to the Safeway at Arden and Watt in Sacramento, and there was older white guy set up with a table with a lot of flags and stuff, doing petitions. I know he's paid because I've seen him lots of other places, way more than a volunteer would be, and he's always got a huge stack of different petitions (7 or 8 yesterday.)

So I went up to see what he had, and he was honest about the marriage one, saying that it would restrict marriage to a man and a woman, so obviously I declined that. Blah blah, few more, signed some and not others, read the blurb on all of course, then he gets to one that would "require a parent to be notified if a teenager has surgery" and he's got his hand over the description as he talks to me. No, I said pretty loudly, I'm not signing anything that limits abortion rights. Just wanted to make sure that the people who were nearby knew not to sign anything without reading. He's a professional, so he was cool with that, but the lying because they get paid by the signature (and not really enough to get by on) bugs me a lot.

The good news is that apparently I wasn't the only one who'd figured it out, that page only had three sigs and all the rest were nearly full. And this is almost directly across the street from a Catholic church, mind.

I'd like to have a mandate that all gathering of sigs must be done by volunteers. It'd act as a nice way of thinning out the propositions: if you can't get anybody fired up enough to stand out in front of the grocery store to support it, your idea probably sucks. And it would eliminate the economic incentive to lie for another signature.

[pwdgroup]

11. Info

(cut and paste link) Think we got problems, check out this states problems.

kanawhacountyblog.blogspot.com/

[orangefire]

12. Bastards n/t

[Irishonly]

13. I was asked on Saturday to sign

The first thing I asked if the the woman with the petition was from California and she said she was. I told her I was not going to sign anything that had the backing of out of staters and designed to take people's civil liberties. She backed down quickly and my comments to her caused about 15 people there to refuse to sign. People don't read the petitions and it seems they will sign anything just so they can hurry on their way.