Case Name: UNITED LABOR COMMITTEE OF MISSOURI et al., Appellants, v. James C. KIRKPATRICK, Secretary of State, Respondent, and Freedom to Work Committee, Inc., Intervenor-Defendant-Respondent
Court: Supreme Court of Missouri
Jurisdiction: Missouri
Decision Date: 1978-10-24
Citations: 572 S.W.2d 449
Docket Number: No. 61025
Parties: UNITED LABOR COMMITTEE OF MISSOURI et al., Appellants, v. James C. KIRKPATRICK, Secretary of State, Respondent, and Freedom to Work Committee, Inc., Intervenor-Defendant-Respondent.
Judges: FINCH, DONNELLY and RENDLEN, JJ., concur.
Reporter: South Western Reporter Second Series
Volume: 572
Pages: 449–468

Head Matter:
UNITED LABOR COMMITTEE OF MISSOURI et al., Appellants, v. James C. KIRKPATRICK, Secretary of State, Respondent, and Freedom to Work Committee, Inc., Intervenor-Defendant-Respondent.
No. 61025.
Supreme Court of Missouri, En Banc.
Oct. 24, 1978.
Rehearing Denied Nov. 7, 1978.
James G. Walsh, Jr., Kansas City, Christopher Graham, Jefferson City, for appellants.
John D. Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Larry Marshall, S. Joel Wilson, Asst. Attys. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.
Cullen Coil, Jefferson City, for interve-nor-defendant.

Opinion:
SEILER, Judge.
The issue before this court is whether the circuit court properly found that certain initiative petitions from the 4th, 5th and 6th congressional districts were properly counted by the secretary of state and whether the validity of the signatures on those petitions can be shown by means outside of § 126.061, RSMo Supp.1975, form requisites. The initiative measure in question is proposed constitutional amendment No. 23 (Right to Work) on the November 1978 ballot.
The plaintiffs-appellants (who appeal from the judgment of the circuit court denying their prayer for relief enjoining the defendant secretary of state from submitting the proposal at the coming election) are a labor oriented Missouri not-for-profit corporation and several resident officers of various labor organizations. Freedom to Work Committee, Inc., a Missouri not-for-profit corporation, which sponsored and conducted the campaign to obtain the required number of voter signatures, was permitted to intervene as a party defendant.
Although various deficiencies have been alleged by appellants, we deal only with the question which would be outcome-determinative on the continuance of the proposed amendment on the November ballot. That question involves whether the voter signatures on certain petitions can be shown to be valid (and allowed to be treated as such) despite the fact that the circulator's "affidavit" thereon was affixed outside the presence of the notary, with the notary signa ture being added at a later time and despite evidence that certain circulators, not present when the voters signed the petition, nevertheless signed affidavits swearing that they witnessed the signatures.
Section 126.061 first provides as follows: "Each sheet of a petition containing signatures shall be verified in substantially the following form by the person who circulated the sheet of the petition, by his affidavit thereon and as part thereof:
It provides further that the circulator must attest that each of the signers "signed his name thereto in my presence; I believe that each has stated his name . . . correctly, and that each signer is a qualified voter of the state of Missouri . . ." The circulator/affiant then signs the petition, with such signature being "subscribed and sworn to before" a notary public. Section 126.061 then provides: "The form herein given is mandatory, and if followed in any petition it shall be sufficient, disregarding clerical and merely technical errors."
The mandatory nature of the form is apparent on its face. Prior to 1971, § 126.-040, RSMo 1969, provided that "The forms herein given are not mandatory, and if substantially followed in any petition it shall be sufficient, disregarding clerical and merely technical errors."
Under Mo.Const. art. III, § 50, proponents of the amendment were required to gather signatures on the petitions from eight percent of the legal voters of two-thirds of the ten congressional districts of the state, and to submit these petitions by July 6, 1978, four months prior to the November 7, 1978 election at which the amendment was to be voted on.
In April, 1978, the Freedom to Work Committee began the initiative petition campaign. Petitions were circulated thereafter until July 6. The proposed amendment reads as follows:
"Section 29(a). That no person shall be deprived of the right and freedom to work at his chosen occupation for any employer because of membership or non-membership in any labor organization, or because of payment or nonpayment of dues, fees, assessments, or other charges of any kind to any labor organization; and that any contract which contravenes this right is illegal and void."
On July 6, the initiative petitions were filed with the secretary of state for processing pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 126, RSMo Supp.1975.
Between July 6 and August 25, the secretary of state processed these petitions. His certificate issued August 28, 1978, certifying that of a total of 234,305 signatures obtained in the ten congressional districts of the state, 163,000 were valid signatures, which qualified the petitions in eight districts.
Deficiencies in the execution of circula-tors' affidavits and notarization are alleged in the 4th, 5th and 6th districts. In their petition plaintiffs also allege that the petitions contain forged, fraudulent, fictitious and unauthorized signatures and that some persons signed more than once. We know from the certificates of the secretary of state that he declared some 67,409 signatures to be invalid and of the 163,000 remaining valid signatures, some 50,000 were in the 4th, 5th, and 6th districts. There was little, if any, evidence, and the trial court made no finding, of any forged, fictitious or unauthorized signatures among these remaining signatures. In one of the briefs before us, appellants state "[I]n all candor that we do not believe this to be a forgery case, nor do we have any evidence to suggest that the signatures deemed valid by the Secretary of State, acting through the various election officials around the State, do not appear on their respective list of registered voters."
Two types of irregularities were alleged and found to exist by the trial court. First, Betty Miller and Sue Fellows signed as purported circulators numerous petitions which had been signed by registered voters outside their presence. Most of these petitions were received through the mail. Both women were full time office employees in the Freedom to Work office in Kansas City, and according to depositions of fellow workers did not work outside the office during office hours. Sue Fellows' name appeared on 170 petitions as circulator, with petitions coming from all three districts.
Betty Miller's name appeared on 257 petitions as circulator, also with petitions from all three districts in question. A total of 1,681 signatures in the 4th district, 321 in the 5th district, and 855 in the 6th district were involved in the 427 petitions signed by these two women. However, even if all of the petitions signed by Sue Fellows and Betty Miller were declared invalid, there would still be enough valid signatures in each district to keep the amendment on the ballot.
The second allegation of deficiencies, however, if resulting in invalidation of the petitions, would be sufficient to take the amendment off the November, 1978 ballot. The evidence showed that Stanley I. Dale, III, worked for Freedom to Work Committee in their Kansas City and Jefferson City offices as notary. It is charged that Dale notarized circulators' signatures on some 1,538 petitions at times when the circulators were not in his presence. Plaintiffs' proof on this point consisted of the testimony mostly by deposition of seventy-two petition circulators who in almost every instance testified that they signed the petitions outside Dale's presence, although the petitions when filed bore Dale's signature and notarial seal. These 1,538 petitions contained 12,960 signatures and if ruled invalid would eliminate 3,280 names in the 4th district, 6,171 in the 5th district and 3,509 in the 6th district. If so, the initiative petitions would be short the necessary eight percent of the voters in the required two-thirds of the congressional districts.
The petitions in question were actually before the trial court. They bore on them the corroborative markings placed thereon by the local election officials when being checked against the local registration records, upon request by the secretary of state under the authority given him by § 126.081.2, RSMo Supp.1975 to consult the public records, including voter registration records, in determining the validity of the voter signatures upon the petitions.
The parties stipulated as to the procedures used by the secretary of state and the instructions which he issued to the local election authorities for checking signatures against voter registration. The local authorities were to check the signatures against the signatures on the registration record. They were cautioned to be on the lookout for apparent forgeries, duplicate signatures, printed signatures, husbands and wives signing for each other, or husbands and wives signed on one signature line as "Mr. and Mrs." At the bottom of each page they were to total the number of signatures checked and to indicate the num ber of registered and nonregistered signatures. The local officials returned the petitions to the secretary of state's office, with their written certificate as to the signatures checked and the number of registered voters eligible to vote. These markings and totals on each page of the petitions can easily be seen on the copies of the petitions which were before the trial court. It was after this checking had been completed that the secretary of state issued his certificate as to the number of valid signatures on the petitions per congressional district. It is abundantly clear therefore, under the record, that there is evidence to support the finding of the trial court that the signatures were genuine.
The real dispute is over the effect of the improper signing of certain petitions by cir-culators who, in fact, did not witness the signing of the petitions by the voter, and the improper notarization of various petitions by Mr. Dale (he notarized the signatures of various circulators to their petitions without the affiants being before him). It is important to note that the conduct involved is not of the type in which signatures are forged, fictitious names are signed, or other dishonest devices used to obtain signatures on the petition. Nor is any misconduct charged or attributed to the voters themselves.
Although the circuit court recognized both the irregularities with the alleged cir-culators and with Dale's notarization, the court nonetheless found the petitions valid because the underlying petition signatures were found to be valid and genuine.
When irregularities in circulator affidavits or notary attestations are found, those irregularities rebut the prima facie validity of the petition (in accord with § 126.061). The burden is then shifted to the proponents of the signatures of the petition signers to show the underlying validity of those signatures. The underlying validity of the signatures was shown through voter registration list checks as set forth above, as well as by testimony of circulators who testified by deposition and in person. We thus affirm the circuit court ruling, which has the effect of continuing the proposed amendment on the November 1978 ballot.
While we appreciate the requirements of circulator affidavits and notary verification, we should look to the purpose of that affidavit and of that verification. The rationale behind initiative amendments is that a sufficient number of registered voters deem an issue important enough that the issue should be put to a vote before the people. The assertation of this constitutional right by the required number of legal voters should not be lightly cast aside. State ex rel. Voss v. Davis, 418 S.W.2d 163 (Mo.1967). As Kasten v. Guth, 395 S.W.2d 433, 435 (Mo.1965) states: "The uppermost question . is whether or not the statute itself makes a specified irregularity fatal . If not, courts will not be astute to make it fatal by judicial eonstruc tion", citing Bowers v. Smith, 111 Mo. 45, 20 S.W. 101, 103 (1892), that construction "of a law as would permit the disfranchisement of large bodies of voters, because of an error of a single official, should never be adopted where the language in question is fairly susceptible of any other." In accord with this theory, the 12,960 registered voters who suffered the happenstance of having signed the petitions which were subsequently improperly notarized by Stanley I. Dale, III, should not have their signatures invalidated due to the conduct of Mr. Dale.
The issue is not whether a particular notary deems what he is doing important enough to comply with the technicalities of the statute by making sure that each circu-lator signs in his presence. To allow form to rule over substance is to permit the failure of the notary, whatever his reason, to defeat the initiative submission in spite of the fact that the proper number of voters have done all they can to comply with the initiative procedure. The only statutory purpose in having a notary sign the petition to begin with is to provide a double check on the validity of the signatures of the voters. If the validity of the voters' signatures can be otherwise verified, their signatures should not be invalidated by the notary's negligence or deliberate misconduct.
Previous decisions of this court have discussed the importance of the initiative and referendum, emphasizing that procedures designed to effectuate these democratic concepts should be liberally construed to avail the voters with every opportunity to exercise these rights. The ability of the voters to get before their fellow voters issues they deem significant should not be thwarted in preference for technical formalities.
In State ex rel. Voss v. Davis, 418 S.W.2d 163 (1967), a time expansion had been granted to permit proponents of a city charter amendment ten additional days to gather sufficient signatures to place the initiative measure on the ballot. In that decision we declared that:
"We should not apply the provisions . relating to the sufficiency of petitions as though they were 'a rule in a checker game, where once your hand is off the man the move is final', but rather should apply them so as 'to give all who actually desire the passage of the proposed measure every opportunity to obtain the required number on a petition . . .'" Id. at 167.
We do not mean to imply that the time mandated by the constitution should be expanded in the case of state-wide initiative, but we do see a parallel in the significance of the initiative in our democratic heritage. In drawing that parallel we noted in Voss at 167 that:
"In the matter of charter amendments by petition, as in initiative and referendum, the people are exercising power reserved to them and the provisions under which they proceed should be construed liberally to the end that their right to determine all proper questions by free and open elections shall be secure. 'Provisions reserving to the people the powers of initiative and referendum are given a liberal construction to effectuate the policy thereby adopted. Such provisions should be construed so as to make effective the reservation of power by the people', 28 Am.Jur., Initiative, Referendum and Recall, Sec. 6, p. 439."
See also State ex rel. Walhmann v. Reim, 445 S.W.2d 336, 341 (Mo. banc 1969); State ex rel. Ford v. Brawley, 514 S.W.2d 97, 99 (Mo.App.1974); State ex rel. Ferro v. Oellermann, 458 S.W.2d 583, 586 (Mo.App.1970).
The initiative power set forth in art. Ill, § 50 of the Missouri Constitution is broad and is not laden with procedural detail. The form in question in the present case is not mandated by the Constitution, but is instead provided for by statute. In comparable situations we have said:
"[LJegislation 'cannot limit or restrict the rights conferred by the constitutional provision.' State ex rel. Elsas v. Missouri Workmen's Compensation Commission, supra [318 Mo. 1004, 2 S.W.2d 796, 801]. In State ex rel. City of Fulton v. Smith, State Auditor, supra [355 Mo. 27, 194 S.W. 302, 305], we said: 'Minor details may be left for the legislature without impairing the self-executing nature of constitutional provisions . . . but all such legislation must be subordinate to the constitutional provision, and in furtherance of its purposes, and must not in any particular attempt to narrow or embarrass it.' In a contest between the two if the statute restricts a right conferred by the Constitution, the latter prevails . " State ex rel. Randolph County v. Walden, 357 Mo. 167, 206 S.W.2d 979, 986 (Mo. banc 1947).
This reasoning applies equally to the initiative process. While it is true that we have held the absence of an enacting clause fatal to an initiative attempt, such enacting clause is required by the Missouri Constitution in art. Ill, § 50, and not by statute, see State ex rel. Scott v. Kirkpatrick, 484 S.W.2d 161 (Mo. banc 1972). We find this distinction significant. The initiative process is too akin to our basic democratic ideals to have this process made unduly burdensome.
Art. Ill, § 50 of the Missouri Constitution makes clear that, in determining whether initiative petitions are sufficient, a primary question is whether they contain the signatures of "eight per cent of the legal voters in each of two-thirds of the congressional districts in the state." The Constitution does not require circulators' affidavits or notaries' jurats. The latter requirements have been engrafted onto the initiative process by statute. These requirements have a role in the initiative validation process, but they are not the ultimate determining factors. The validity of the signatures is the heart of the ultimate determination.
In Whitman v. Moore, 59 Ariz. 211, 125 P.2d 445, 453 (1942), [overruled in part, but not as to proposition for which here cited, in Renck v. Superior Court of Maricopa County, 66 Ariz. 320, 187 P.2d 656, 660 (1947)], the Arizona court was faced with the question of "What is the effect if the petitioner or verifier fails to comply fully with the formal requirements of the constitution?" In response, the court concluded:
"The ultimate substantive question obviously is whether the signer is in all respects a qualified elector, and all the requirements in regard to residence, date of signing, verification and the like are to assist interested parties to ascertain this fact. . . . the effect of a deviation from the constitutional requirements in any of these particulars as to the manner of furnishing the necessary information by either petitioner or verifier is not to make the signature void, but to destroy the presumption of validity, and place upon the one desiring to sustain the signature the burden of proving by evidence aliunde the petition that the signer was qualified in all respects." [emphasis added.]
A fortiori, the same would be true as to statutory requirements such as found in Section 126.061. When the Arizona court addressed the question as it related to the lack of notary certificate or certification of verification, the court again concluded that, although the prima facie validity was destroyed, the irregularity did not make the signatures invalid if "it be affirmatively shown that the [signers] were qualified electors." Whitman 125 P.2d at 455. See to the same effect Kaesser v. Becker, 295 Mo. 93, 243 S.W. 846, 352 (banc 1922), quoted in footnote No. 5, supra, and State ex rel. Ferro v. Oellermann, 458 S.W.2d at 587; Fleming v. Fones, 230 Mo.App. 1147, 91 S.W.2d 208, 212 (1936).
The same rule applies in other jurisdictions. See, e. g., In re Initiative Petition No. 272, 388 P.2d 290, 293 (Okl.1964); and in particular State ex rel. Carson v. Kozer, 105 Or. 486, 210 P. 179, 183 (1922), which was quoted and relied upon by the trial court in the case at bar as follows:
". . . The end sought to be attained is the signing by a sufficient number of legal voters. The affidavit of the circulator and the certificates of county clerks and notaries public are mere forms and evidence designed to accomplish the end sought to be attained. The affidavit and the certificates are forms, while the signatures of legal voters are the substance.
. . Genuine signatures of legal voters constitute the vitalizing element of a petition, and all else is mere form and evidence. Even though the prima facie quality of the evidence . is destroyed, . . . there yet remains a petition sufficient in form, and if the petition is in truth signed by a sufficient number of legal voters, it is a legally sufficient petition . . . Impeachment of the evidence furnished by the certificate does not foreclose inquiry concerning the truth; and the truth can be learned only by a consideration of all available evidence relating to the genuineness of the signatures."
See also Petition of Smith, 114 N.J.Super. 421, 276 A.2d 868, 872-73 (1971), and Pafford v. Hall, 217 Ark. 734, 233 S.W.2d 72, 73-74 (1950).
We next address the issue of whether the change in statutory language in 1971, making the form mandatory rather than suggestive, has any effect on the standard which permits proponents to demonstrate the underlying validity of the signatures once the prima facie validity of the form has been refuted. We find the standard does not change.
Prior to 1971, Section 126.040, RSMo 1969 provided that "[t]he forms herein given are not mandatory, and if substantially followed in any petition it shall be sufficient, disregarding clerical and merely technical errors." That provision was superseded in 1971 by the language earlier set forth, stating that "[t]he form herein given is mandatory, and if followed in any petition it shall be sufficient, disregarding clerical and merely technical errors." The form in both instances required signature of the circulator, attesting that the signers signed in his presence, with the notary attesting that the circulator signed in his presence.
In Kasten, 395 S.W.2d at 435, the votes were not invalidated by the absence of judges' or clerks' initials and black stickers over the numbers (requirements mandated by Section 111.620, RSMo 1959), with the statutory language requiring that "it shall be the duty of the election judges . to cover or conceal securely the identifying number . . . " and "[n]o judge of election shall deposit any ballot upon which the names or initials of the judges do not appear" (emphasis supplied). To reiterate in Hasten, the court concluded that " 'The uppermost question in applying statutory regulation to determine the legality of votes . is whether or not the statute itself makes a specified irregularity fatal. If so, courts enforce it to the letter. If not, courts will not be astute to make it fatal by judicial construction.' " Id. at 435. We cannot give the "shall" or "mandatory" language in Section 126.061 greater importance, in the absence of express statutory language declaring that petitions which fail to comply with the requirements shall not be counted.
A recent decision where the statute did make the defect in an affidavit fatal illustrates the point further. In Barks v. Turnbeau, 573 S.W.2d 677, the court of appeals, St. Louis district, Nos. 40661 and 40662 (September 12, 1978), found irregularities in absentee ballots to be sufficient to invalidate the ballots. Two distinctions from the present case are noteworthy. First, in Barks it was the voters themselves who were to adhere to the statutory procedures and not merely a private third party. Second, a specific remedy has been provided in Section 115.295, RSMo Supp.1977 to deal with the situation of a faulty absentee ballot affidavit. That remedy is that "the absentee ballot . be rejected." Section 126.061 has no provision describing the remedy to be imposed if the form is not followed completely.
The purpose of the 1971 change was to make checks on the prima facie validity of the petitions easier for the secretary of state by having a uniform form. Plainly the requirement of a uniform style of petition will be of great assistance to the secretary of state in checking thousands of such documents. It in no way requires that irregularities in the circulators' or notary's signatures be treated fatal to the petition.
This court does not condone the improper signing by circulators of initiative petitions or of affidavits by a notary public. The legislature has made it a crime punishable by up to two years in the penitentiary for any officer or person willfully to violate any provision of Chapter 126. Section 126.151, RSMo Supp.1975. The remedy, however, is criminal proceedings against those who swore false oaths or otherwise violated applicable statutes and not by nullification of the good faith subscription by the voters to the petitions. A small number of people abused the statutory process provided for the people to exercise their constitutionally reserved right of initiative by presenting the secretary of state with certain improperly notarized petitions. These actions of third parties involved in the initiative process should not operate to deny the larger body of honest persons who have done all they can do to place this measure on the November ballot the opportunity for its submission to the entire electorate.
The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
FINCH, DONNELLY and RENDLEN, JJ., concur.
MORGAN, C. J., dissents in separate dissenting opinion filed.
BARDGETT, J., dissents in separate dissenting opinion filed and concurs in dissenting opinions of MORGAN, C. J., and SI-MEONE, J.
SIMEONE, J., dissents in separate dissenting opinion filed and concurs in dissenting opinions of MORGAN, C. J., and BARD-GETT, J.
. Section 126.061 reads in full as follows:
"Each sheet of a petition containing signatures shall be verified in substantially the following form by the person who circulated the sheet of the petition, by his affidavit thereon and as part thereof:
State of Missouri
County of_
I,_, being first duly sworn, say (here shall be legibly written or typewritten the name of the signers of the sheet) signed this sheet of the foregoing petition, and each of them signed his name thereto in my presence; I believe that each has stated his name, street address and city, town or village correctly, and that each signer is a qualified voter of the state of Missouri and of the _congressional district.
Signature and address of affiant. Subscribed and sworn to before me this_ day of_, A.D. 19_
(Notary seal and signature.)
The form herein given is mandatory, and if followed in any petition it shall be sufficient, disregarding clerical and merely technical errors."
. No issue is raised on appeal as to the admissibility of this evidence.
. Signers of initiative petitions must be registered voters. Scott v. Kirkpatrick, 513 S.W.2d 442 (Mo. banc 1974).
.The fact that Section 126.081 permits the secretary of state to consult voter registration records refutes the argument that the Section 126.061 form is the "only" statutory check on the validity of the signatures.
. As stated, plaintiffs took depositions of 72 petition circulators whose petitions were notarized by Mr. Dale. In cross-examination of these witnesses, the defendants brought out that the witnesses, as petition circulators, had in fact witnessed the signing of the petitions by those whose signatures appeared thereon. In many instances, the defendants also brought out on cross-examination that the witnesses had asked if the signer were a registered voter, etc. Defendants contended that any failure to swear to these essentials before notary Dale was cured by the subsequent statements given under oath in the deposition covering the same points as would have been covered had the petition been properly sworn to in the first place. Plaintiffs contend that deficiencies in circulators' affidavits cannot be remedied by subsequent proof. However, Kaesser v. Becker, 295 Mo. 93, 243 S.W. 346, 352 (banc 1922) holds directly to the contrary, stating: "It reasonably follows that, if such petition is challenged when offered in court and it develops under the proof that the affidavit is false in material allegation or any material fact is not therein stated, those asserting the sufficiency of such petition should furnish proof aliunde of the necessary facts, such as the testimony of the circulator, for example . . . " We do not see where the 1971 statutory change making use of the prescribed circulator's oath form mandatory changes the rules set forth in Kaes-ser above, as the purpose of the change would appear to be for the convenience of the secretary of state in checking petitions, as discussed later herein.