Court Opinion

ID: 9854850
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:15:23.266806+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:29.556295
License: Public Domain

Zenoff, D. J.,
dissenting:
As properly recited in the majority opinion Article 19, Section 3 of the Constitution, permits a petition to consist of more than one document. There is no expressed definition of what constitutes a document. The design of that provision, at least, is to facilitate the circulation of a proposed amendment to the people. In effect, each document is a petition within itself. There is nothing specific that requires a document to be comprised of any certain number of pages, only that each document be verified by “one of the signers of the document * *
The majority opinion requires each verifier of a document to also sign the document as a signer, or petitioner. Assuming such person to have circulated more than one document he is thereby required to sign the petition as many times as he has signed a document. Yet, his name as a petitioner can only be counted once.
On the other hand, it was conceded at oral argument that in this situation where the verifier has failed to sign some of the documents as a petitioner, the defect is cured simply by stapling a “good” document to those that he circulated and signed as a verifier but did not sign as a petitioner. It leads me to query what the answer would be if instead of a staple the documents were held together by a rubber band or a paper clip.
Efforts of the people to petition their government should be given liberal construction. The initiative and referendum are two forms of legislative power reserved to the people. Since they deal with the reserved powers of the people they should be liberally construed to uphold the power whenever that can reasonably be done. Collins v. City and County of San Francisco, 112 Cal.App.2d 719, 247 P.2d 362, 368-369; Brownlow v. Wunsch, 103 Colo. 120, 83 P.2d 775, 777.
There is no contention that those who signed as voters were not in truth registered voters, nor is it claimed that *368those who signed were misled into signing. The record indicates a sufficient number of registered voters expressed their desire to have this measure placed on the ballot. Under the interpretation of the majority, the will of the people is frustrated by a mere mechanical deficiency which was not of their own doing. To adopt the narrow construction thwarts the efforts of the voters to petition their government and the courts should be reluctant to interfere with the legislative process. Collins, supra.
The vitality of an initiated petition is supplied by the number of valid signatures. Brownlow, supra. Here1, the number of signatures required by law were those of people who, as registered voters, wanted a measure submitted to popular vote. In Fiannaca, this court said the copies remaining after the defective copies were discarded, would not contain enough signatures. That is not true in this case. If the liberal interpretation which I urge were to be adopted, more than twice the required number of signatures, duly authenticated, appear on the initiative petition.
I dissent.