Is Democracy for Sale? The Problem with Paid Petitioners

by Madeleine Kando


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Today was one of those 'Oh, wow' days in my life. Something happened that put a permanent dent in the armor of naivete with which I usually view the world.

Because I feel strongly about animal protection, I volunteered to gather signatures for a new ballot initiative in Massachusetts which would curb extreme confinement and lifelong immobilization of animals at industrial-style factory farms.

There I was, standing at the entrance of the local super market, boldly approaching strangers, ignoring my natural shyness for the sake of a lofty cause. I watched the shopping cart retriever maneuver his catch, like a long metal snake, as he was trying not to collide into the walls. Ha, so that's how it feels to be anonymous - you know, when nobody pays attention to you. As we exchanged looks, this older man pushing his long trail of carts and I, we had a moment of 'understanding'.

After a few hours, my bladder began to complain, so I took a break to go to the bathroom. I returned recharged and relieved, but saw that my 'spot' had been taken over by a young man, standing behind a large folding table, energetically calling out 'please sign the petition to legalize marijuana'.

Wow, one little pee break and I was bumped. I could have told him to leave, explain the situation, but I was almost at the end of my 'shift', so I signed his petitions instead. He had three of them: one for weed, one for charter schools and one to allow a casino at the horse race tracks. When he signed my petition, I felt like we were soul-mates; I forgave him for stealing my spot and watched with admiration, as he enthusiastically shouted his message without any inhibition. I could learn a thing or two, I thought.

I asked him how he could find the time to get involved in all these worthy causes, but the reason for his involvement and enthusiasm soon became apparent: he was getting paid for every signature he gathered.

You see, ballot initiatives require a minimum amount of signatures by registered voters to be included in an election. Theoretically, initiatives represent the most direct form of democracy and civic participation. Especially now, that voters are so cynical about elected politicians' ability to represent them, petitions have become more popular. What I didn't know (I told you I was naive), was that without hiring a professional signature gathering firm, it is virtually impossible to get a measure on the ballot.

I began to explore the world of signature gathering and soon realized that it was like stepping back in time, when bounty hunters were hired to gather criminals for a fee. It is a thriving, for profit business, pretty much unregulated and the few laws that exist are usually not enforced.

This young man who bumped me, was illegally gathering signatures, since he was not a registered voter in Massachusetts. The law says that all signatures have to be witnessed by a resident. The hundreds of signatures that he gathered each day could have been thrown out, if anyone had bothered to pursue it. The switch and bait of combining more than one petition is also illegal.

The petition that I sweated for, day in day out, will end up on his table, since it is clear that even with the fleet of volunteers that my organization managed to recruit, it will never be able to gather the 95,000 signatures needed to put this on the Massachusetts ballot by November 2015. They need the bounty hunters to accomplish that task, and if they are lucky, they will have the money to pay for it.

You might argue that paid signature gathering serves a purpose, it gets a measure on the ballot, and after all, that's all that counts. The chickens and pigs won't care how we got those 95,000 signatures. They care about the size of their crates. But does the cause always justify the means? Doesn't the 'guns for hire' approach replace grassroots democracy with greenback democracy?

Let's take California as an example, since it is the poster child of the 'direct democracy' model. Everything gets voted on by referendum or initiatives over there. But isn't that an enormous responsibility to put on voters? Isn't that why we have politicians? What if you had to fix your own toilet instead of hiring a plumber? The 'direct democracy' idea is fine and dandy in principle, but it can and IS widely abused by special interest groups. As an example, a large company, like Wal-Mart hires a professional signature gathering firm to fight an ordinance limiting the square footage of a new retailer and the local community group is forced to use whatever resources it can to fight the professionals, usually losing the battle. Money talks, democracy loses.

Since there are no limits on what one can contribute to an initiative, (as opposed to what one can give to a political candidate), one wealthy individual can bankroll an entire campaign, which defeats the purpose of the initiative's role as an instrument of popular democracy.

There was another petitioner eying my spot that day. She had come to gather signatures to 'get money out of politics', and made her opinion of the 'guns for hire' approach quite clear by refusing to even talk to the Marijuana gentleman. She told me proudly that her organization's signature gathering campaign was entirely volunteer driven.

A volunteer-only cause might not have more popular support, but its petitioner is more justified in placing an issue before the voters, since it relies on people who devote their time and energy to that cause. Those who pay for a spot on the ballot have not earned that same right, in my opinion.

So today, I got a taste of how messy and complicated Democracy really is. I knew the store wasn't exactly happy with all these petitioners blocking their exit and vying for their customers' precious time, but they would not kick us out, since we were protected by the First Amendment, even though we were trespassing on private property.

But if it were up to me, I would like to see more disclosure in the world of signature gathering. It would be nice to know who paid for what. I would sooner sign a petition that has the efforts of hundreds of volunteers behind it, than one that is financed by one single billionaire.

That said, if any billionaire out there feels strongly about farm animals' suffering and is willing to donate generously, I will sacrifice my principles for the sake of the chickens. leave comment here