Thursday, June 19, 2008

Question Posed - Can I sign any petition or just one in my district?

I believe that only the voters in a specific district can sign the recall petition for an elected official of that district. Concentrate on your own districts. As much as all of us would love to sign the recall petitions for Jim Tucker and Ann Duplesis, that special privilege is reserved for the people in their districts alone.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How many petitions do you need to recall a senator in her district. I am in Ann's district...

dterry58 said...

Are you aware of any means by which we could have a referendum added for the presidental election? If so, we could let the people vote to overturn the pay raise and have all efforts aimed at a single objective.

TruthB4Party said...

Anon,
Based upon my reading of the R.S. 18:1300.2. It appears that you need one petition that is signed by 33 1/3% of the voters in the district. The difficult part is that you have 180 days from the date that you file the proposed petition (no signatures can be obtained before this time) with the secretary of state's office to obtain the signatures of "registered voters" and then file with the Secretary of State's office. The post with the statute gives the requirements, also be aware that there are financial disclosures required to be filed as well regarding this issue. I am not an expert on the particulars of this, I would suggest seeking out an attorney in your district who also wants to see a recall and get their assistance in making sure that everything is done precisely right.

Also bear in mind there are probably (likely) filing costs involved, so it needs to be a community effort with people stepping up financially to make this happen. I understand that you can request a packet from the Secretary of State's office that should give you the complete run down on how to do it.
Good luck!

TruthB4Party said...

dterry,
I'm unaware of any way to have an item added to a public referendum and vote without it being proposed by the legislature.

There may be another way, but I'm not involved in the legislative process to be aware of this procedure. You might contact Clancy Dubos or other political analysts who may know of another alternative. Unfortunately, the only clear message that I'm aware we can send is to recall them or vote them out at the next election. Although as you know, a recall is a much more dramatic event.

The problem with what you propose may be a usurpation of the authority vested by the Louisiana Constitution in the legislature alone. Even the governor is limited by the legislature in having any bill proposed much less passed.

Hope that answered your question. I know it would be much easier if the effort could be directed in conjunction with an election. One possibility may be to time the filing of the proposed recall petition so that the election falls within the 180 days, then taking advantage of people arriving at the polls to solicit votes outside of the polling places. That may be a viable option.

klondike said...

does anyone know how I can sign a recall petion for my senator Cheryl Gray or Rep Karen Cater Peterson?

TruthB4Party said...

Klondike,
I'll check to see what district that is and post any information I can get regarding a recall in that district. May not be until monday but I'll see what I can find.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to know how many votes were cast in her district - how many for her and how many for any opponents?
How many registered voters are in that district determines how many signatures are needed to recall the greedy hu$$y!

Anonymous said...

The legislators that voted for the raise and are choosing to donate it, is just as guilty as the ones that are going to keep it. If they would have voted against it in the first place the bill would not have passed. They are just sitting on the fence, playing both, the stupid voters and appeasing the proponents of the raise.