Initiatives Pouring In Before Laws Change Tougher Gathering Restrictions Motivate Flood Of Measures

Three more initiatives were filed with the secretary of state’s office on Thursday, days before a new law goes into effect that will make the process much harder.

On Tuesday, legislation passed by the 1997 Legislature becomes law placing restrictions on initiatives that many contend will make it almost impossible to get citizen initiatives on the ballot in the future.

Initiatives filed before then will operate under current laws. They require 41,335 signatures of registered voters, with no restrictions on where they may be gathered.

After Tuesday, the new laws require signatures of at least 6 percent of the voters in at least half of Idaho’s 44 counties.

On Tuesday of this week, the Idaho Family Forum filed an initiative to eliminate most of the changes enacted by the Legislature last winter and signed into law by Gov. Phil Batt. The Idaho Family Forum initiative actually would make it much easier to get initiatives on the ballot than current laws.

It retains the 1997 change lowering the number of signatures needed to 6 percent of the vote for governor in the last election instead of the 10 percent in current law. Using the same base of registered voters, that would cut the requirement by 16,000 signatures.

One of Thursday’s new initiatives calls for a state law allowing congressional candidates to voluntarily pledge to serve no more than three terms in the House and two in the Senate. Any candidate running for additional terms would have the designation “broke term limits pledge” placed next to his or her name on the ballot.

That’s similar to the only initiative approved by voters in the 1996 general election, instructing election officials to place a designation by a candidate’s name whether the candidate supports term limits.

It’s under a court challenge and the Idaho Supreme Court has not issued a decision yet.

The third initiative imposes term limits on state and local elected officials but allows city residents to eliminate term limits for mayors and city council members. It also would forbid elected officials from lobbying government organizations for the same number of years as the official served in office.