100 voters as its sponsor, and certified
by the secretary of state. The secretary
of state prepares the petition to be cir-
culated by the sponsors. This is done
to prevent the expense of circulating a
petition which is unconstitutional or
improper in form.
The petition is required to indicate,
on its face, what the proposal is. This
is done in several ways. Alaska provides
that the secretary of state prepare a
summary of the proposal to be contained
in the petition when circulated. In some
states, the entire proposal must be
printed on the petition; and in others,
the proposal title, prepared by the
state's attorney general, is considered
sufficient.
A number of states have provisions
pertaining to who may solicit signatures
for the petition. Massachusetts restricts
solicitation in that the solicitor cannot
receive compensation; yet the Arkansas
and North Dakota constitutions prohibit
their legislatures from passing such a
restriction. Three other states with pro-
visions relating to who procures signa-
tures merely require that the person be
a qualified voter. Those qualified to
sign the petition, although designated
in various ways, are generally the quali-
fied or registered voters of the unit to
which the question is being submitted.
Five states require that the signer's ad-
dress be given in some form, and four
require the date of the signing. Also,
five states require that signatures be
verified by an affidavit submitted with
the petition when it is filed.
States' requirements concerning num-
bers of signatures differ widely. Some
differences in the percentage of signa-
tures required appear to be related to
the size of the state, its population, and
the density of the population. The
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method of computing the requisite num-
ber of signatures also varies but it is
most frequently calculated from the
number of votes cast for governor in the
last gubernatorial election. In some
cases the vote for an office other than
governor, or the entire vote cast at that
election, is used as the base.
Constitutions of some states require
examination of the sufficiency of the
signatures. If there is an insufficient
number of signatures, extra time, rang-
ing from 10 days to 40 days, is allowed
to file additional signatures. Fraudulent
practices in obtaining signatures and fil-
ing petitions are dealt with in four
constitutions. They expressly empower
the state legislature to provide by law
for prohibiting and penalizing such
practices.
Many states require that voters be
notified of questions to appear on the
ballot through some form of advance
publication. Several states require that
copies of proposals be sent to voters
along with arguments for and against
the proposal.
Questions are usually submitted to a
vote at general elections but some states
also provide for special elections. Seven
states provide that the questions of
when and how the proposal will be sub-
mitted to the people will be left to the
determination of the legislature; in
other states, the constitutional provision
is self-executing. In Maryland, ques-
tions will be submitted "at the next
ensuing election held throughout the
State for Members of the House of
Representatives of the United States."
A favorable majority of votes cast on
a particular question is in most cases
sufficient for its adoption. Some states
require more, however — in Oklahoma
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