Opinion ID: 1184865
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: numerical sufficiency of petition

Text: This proceeding was bifurcated by this court with reference to a Referee to determine the numerical sufficiency of the petition. Under a proposed schedule submitted by the parties, signature challenge hearings before the Referee were to be completed by May 26, 1982. Hearings were conducted and were terminated on May 21, 1982. On May 24, 1982, the Referee submitted his Report which, inter alia, states: On the basis of all of the evidence adduced at the hearings, as established by a fair preponderance thereof, taking into consideration the weight, credibility and sufficiency of all of such evidence, and further taking into consideration the legal presumption of the validity of the signatures, the referee makes the following findings and conclusions: 1. The gross number of presumptively valid signatures affixed to Initiative Petition No. 317, as determined by order of the Supreme Court entered December 14, 1981, is 109,828. 2. The number of valid signatures required to place the proposition before the electorate is 91,977, computed as 8% percent of one million one hundred forty-nine thousand seven hundred and eight (1,149,708), which is the total vote cast for the office of presidential electorate in the general election conducted November 4, 1980, and invalidity of 17,852 signatures would render the petition invalid. The Referee then set forth thirty-eight (38) separate contested categories of alleged insufficiency of signatures, discussed them in detail and finally concluded that: ... . not to exceed 13,435 signatures should be stricken from Initiative Petition No. 317, as invalid. The referee further concludes that this would leave Initiative Petition No. 317 with 96,393 valid signatures. It is, therefore, recommended that Initiative Petition No. 317 be held to bear a sufficient number of valid signatures for submission to vote of the electorate. Protestants filed their Exceptions to the Referee's Report and challenge eight (8) of the thirty-eight (38) categories that had been contested in the evidentiary hearings before the Referee and included in his Report. We will consider Protestants' Exceptions to the Referee's Report.