Barney Bishop, Chair of Save Our Constitution Reacts to Appeals Court Ruling on Revocation Law
April 24, 2008  

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In a surprising and disappointing decision for the business community, the First District Court of Appeals struck down Florida's initiative signature revocation law. The law, enacted in 2007, allowed a voter who had signed an initiative to revoke his or her signature within 150 days. It had been used successfully by Save Our Constitution (SOC), a political committee with strong AIF ties, to revoke over 13,000 signatures from the dangerous Hometown Democracy and was both a real and psychological factor in the failure of HTD to obtain ballot status for 2008.
 
The Court found that the new law failed to meet the established standard on "enhancing the integrity of the ballot" and contrasted it to administrative measures such as verification of signatures by Supervisors of Elections and similar measures that the courts have approved in the past. SOC had joined the Secretary of State in defending the lower court decision approving the statute as giving a voter the "right to change his mind" and thus insuring that the 611,000 voters who signed a petition did so with a common and continuing desire to see an amendment on the ballot. The Court rejected this contention in a very narrow interpretation of the "integrity of the ballot" standard that seems to limit legislative action to procedural mechanisms as opposed to the broader policy issue of insuring the intent of the signatories.

“We are very disappointed in the decision in that the revocation process is really essential to insure that a voter's true intent can be made known, said AIF President Barney Bishop who also served as Chair of SOC. "This decision leaves the door wide open to future misrepresentation and deception on the part of signature gatherers, which has characterized the current process and that's certainly contrary to anyone's idea of good government."  
 
Save Our Constitution will now request the District Court to certify the case to the Florida Supreme Court for review as a matter of great public importance. “We certainly hope for - and even anticipate – a review by the Supreme Court as this case is critical to all Floridians if the integrity of the initiative process is to be truly protected," Bishop added. "Regardless of the outcome, AIF remains completely committed to the defeat of Hometown Democracy by any and all legitimate means.  This deceiving amendment poses a clear and present danger to the prosperity and well-being of every citizen of our State."

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