(Columbus, OH) – Ohio’s political battleground status as well as years of embarrassing and costly public gaffes by signature gathering firms has led to the creation of an Ohio-based petition company. Officials of the new firm, Ohio Petition Company, cite an “obligation” to fixing Ohio’s broken petition process, have developed a state-of-the-art signature collection and onsite validation system they say will guarantee ballot placement for their clients.

“Those of us who participate in the process have an obligation to improve it when it fails,” said senior partner Ian James. “Due to the complexity of Ohio’s election laws, petition drives must have built-in quality controls to validate signatures as they are being collected. More often than not, petition drives implement limited or no validation systems resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in waste and failure to make it to the ballot.”

Mr. James should know, having managed SEIU’s recent Sick Days petition drive as well as overseeing the collection of over 1 million signatures in 2006, successfully placing issues on the ballot. In fact, over the past 24 years Mr. James has directed and worked with over 150 political operations and has the state’s largest statewide issue campaigns. In the past few years however, Mr. James said he believes the problem of petition gathering has worsened to the point that action became necessary. He notes that in 2006, a well-financed operation for a constitutional amendment stumbled several times before suspending its efforts. That same year, a national signature gathering firm faced harsh criticism and potential ballot disqualification due to improperly handling of petitions.  In 2007, Ohioans witnessed the worst petition drive in the state’s history.  Even though polling showed voters supporting the repeal of the law known as the “stripper bill,” the referendum failed to make the ballot as more than 2 of every 3 signatures collected were ruled invalid.

Historically, more than 90% of a petition’s invalidated signatures are due to a lack of oversight during the collection process. Many of these signatures are thrown-out because those signing are not registered to vote. Worse yet is the invalidation of registered voters who have moved but failed to file a change of address form with their local board of elections. 

“Ohio law allows a registered voter to move across the state and vote a provisional ballot at their new address. However, the law does not allow provisional signing of a petition,” said managing partner Julie Heffelfinger. “Our Voter Services program will identify both provisional voters and non-registered voters who sign our petitions. We can then provide them change of address and/or registration forms as well as the means to file those forms to ensure their signature counts.” Heffelfinger concluded, “This new service will improve the overall validation rate while giving people the voice they deserve.”

With over 50 years of experience, the Ohio Petition Company’s team worked with numerous election attorneys, seasoned campaign professionals as well as business leaders, company officials developed a five-step quality control operation. The system mirrors the boards of elections’ validation processes and has been enhanced to increase validity. These new steps include:

1)      Employment Oversight & Eliminating Fraud – This ensures petition circulators meet the legal requirements of residency and can pass a criminal background check. Improvements such as paying petitioners by the hour will eliminate fraudulent signatures that are inherent in the paid by the signature drives.

2)      Complete Data Entry for Clients and Election Officials – Within 72-hours of signature collection, petitions will undergo a complete data entry process. This creates a manifest of all who signed the petition to allow clients to continue dialoguing with them and to assist election officials in the validation process. Additional reports will automatically update on a secure website where clients can review data (e.g. cumulative number of signatures collected, validation status as well as county qualification requirements).

3)      100% Signature Review – Providing a thorough, line-by-line review and validation of all signatures within a 72-hours period. This will allow for validity tracking, identification of fraud as well as the measurement of each petition circulator’s performance. This will also ensure that the drive has met the 44 county qualification requirements.

4)      Eradicating Fatal Flaws – Review each part-petition for complete and accurate execution of circulator statement within 72-hours of collection. This allows for the identification and correction of fatal flaws prior to filing to preserve signatures and save money.

5)      Recapturing “Lost” Signatures and Real-Time Validation Services – The Voter Services systems are designed to transform invalid signatures into valid by identifying provisional and non-registered voters. In turn, these individuals can be provided change of address and voter registrations forms as well as assistance in filing these forms with local board of elections offices. Additional services include a proprietary voter database system that allows circulators to check petition signers’ voter registration status at the time of signing. This real-time, in-field system will notify the circulator if the person signing is registered and/or providing a valid address. The system then alerts them to either accept the signature or ask the signer execute a change of address/voter registration form.

Company officials say these state-of-the-art improvements took time and resources to develop, but are necessary in returning legitimacy to Ohio’s petition process.

“In the past, signature gathering firms have descended on Ohio like a carnival cavalcade. When they left, people were unsatisfied, the system was in question and voters were disenfranchised,” Mr. James said. “The Ohio Petition Company’s implementation of intelligent systems and programs brings responsible and cost effective solutions to guarantee our clients access to the ballot.”

Additional information can be found online by logging onto: www.OhioPetitionCompany.com.

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