Term Limits Claim Called Into Question Group Says It’S Close To Qualifying Initiative For Ballot, But Officials Say That’S Unlikely

State and county election officials say it’s highly unlikely that Citizens for Term Limits really has enough signatures to qualify a new initiative for the ballot, despite the group’s claims.

Campaign chairman Don Morgan now says that the Hayden Lake-based group has collected signatures from the required 6 percent of voters from 22 counties, but is shy of the needed 39,686 signatures by roughly 10,000.

“The company we contracted with assured us that they could get those signatures within a couple of weeks,” Morgan said. “We’re holding off to see what the Legislature will do. At this point it doesn’t look like they’ll do anything, which is the right thing.”

But calls to 37 of Idaho’s 44 counties Wednesday revealed that only 15 had received petitions from Morgan’s group for verification. And they totaled fewer than 8,000 valid signatures.

Plus, of 4,495 signatures turned in to Ada County thus far, only 2,741 checked out.

“It really isn’t a good idea to hold onto those signatures,” said Penny Ysursa of the Idaho secretary of state’s office. “The people that signed may have moved or not be properly registered now, even though the signatures may have been valid at the time.”

The term-limits group has been trying to pressure lawmakers not to repeal their own term limits, by threatening an even tougher initiative if they do.

Citizens for Term Limits has spent close to $37,000 petitioning for the new initiative, according to the group’s campaign finance report. The group contracted with National Voter Outreach Inc. of Carson City, Nevada.

Morgan explained that they had to hire people to do petitioning for them because of the sheer volume of signatures required under Idaho law. Morgan announced Tuesday that his group had “an adequate number of signatures … to qualify a tougher term limits initiative for the November 2000 ballot.”

He acknowledged Wednesday that the group was still short, but said he has two boxes of petitions still uncounted.

Late Wednesday, Morgan said the group was recounting its petitions. He said he thought counties had verified far more than 8,000 of his signatures.

“I’d also like to add some of these counties have joined the lawsuit and don’t particularly like us,” he said. Morgan was referring to a lawsuit filed in eastern Idaho by a group of local officials, challenging Idaho’s existing term-limits law.

When groups gather signatures to qualify initiatives for the ballot, county election officials check them to make sure they’re valid signatures of registered voters in the county. “At this point they have not submitted any petitions to us for verification or certification,” said Bonner County Clerk Marie Scott.

“We haven’t heard a thing,” said Marilyn Rasmussen, Madison County clerk.

To qualify an initiative for the ballot, petitions must be turned in to county clerks’ offices by April 30. The clerks then have 60 days to verify the signatures.

The petitions must then be filed with the secretary of state’s office four months before the election. Clerks who had received petitions from the group reported that they came in between September and November of 1999. None reported receiving any recently.

“I would be very surprised if they had all 39,686 signatures,” Ysursa said.