A court victory for Hometown Democracy

Florida Hometown Democracy fell short of getting its slow-growth ballot initiative petition on the 2008 ballot. But the group won a court fight Wednesday when the First District Court of Appeal struck down a state law that allows voters to revoke signatures on ballot initiative petitions. A three-judge panel reversed an earlier order by Leon Circuit Judge Charles Francis, nullifying the law passed by the Legislature in 2007.

The appeals court ruled that The Legislature's passage of the signature revocation law and Secretary of State Kurt Browning's adoption of administrative rules, do not "ensure ballot integrity," a standard set by the Florida Supreme Court in two cases cited by the DCA.

"Signature revocation is not even referenced in the citizen initiative provisions in the Constitution," the judges wrote. "And they are not necessary for the orderly presentation of initiative-generated constitutional amendment proposals on general election ballots. Indeed, they serve to burden the initiative process with requirements that are not prescribed by the Constitution."

Comments

[Alex]

No doubt the State will use our tax dollars to appeal this court ruling.

Hometown Democracy should have been on the 2008 ballot, if is wasn't for election rigging all accross the state.

The "ballot integrity" requirement for legislation on petitions is a judicially created standard also "not referenced" in the Florida Constitution. The courts need to stop interfering with the legislative branch of government -- their bias is showing.

The folks at HD were rookies who made too many mistakes trying to collect signatures. That, and their proposal is going to flop in 2010 when, presumably, they will have enough signatures. Quit whining. The signature revocation is a pittance compared to the normal cushion needed for bad signatures.

2:01 your sore loser mentality is showing. The court has the authority and responsibility of interpreting law. They did it and they were right.

Damn - how much did they spend to revocate all those signatures? Guess there's no refunds on something like this.

The people, who have all political power in Florida, are duped into signing petitions and then cannot revoke? That seems fair ... it must be what the people intended in adopting the petition process in the constitution ...?

[Omega83]

8:32

If one is stupid enough to affix their signature to something before they have fully read and comprehended it, they do not deserve the right to revoke it - unless the informaiton written on the form itself is later found to be patently false

However, I do appreciate the irony in the same liberals praising this ruling also crying that many homeowners were "duped" into signing "misleading" mortgage agreements on their now foreclosed homes.

The same personal responsibility issue applies to both examples.

Some people apparently doesn't know how these signatures are gathered ...