Montanans For Justice Seek To Throw Out Initiative Signatures Tuesday, August 15, 2006 a legal action was filed in state district court in Great Falls asking the court to throw out the signatures obtained by professional signature gatherers for CI-98, CI-97 and I-154. Plaintiffs bringing the action are: Montanans for Justice: Vote No on CI-98, a registered political ballot committee with offices in Great Falls; Not in Montana: Citizens Against CI-97; and, Property Owners Against I-154. Defendants in the legal action are: the State of Montana through Secretary of State Brad Johnson; Stop Over Spending Montana, Citizens Right to Recall Montana and Protect Our Homes Montana, political committees organized and registered in support of initiatives CI-97, CI-98 and I-154, respectively; Trevis Butcher, treasurer of all three of these political committees; and Montanans in Action, which provided the funds for the signature gathering efforts of all three ballot committees. Plaintiffs allege in their complaint that the defendant committees "utilized paid signature gatherers" and that the "defendants were responsible for the signature gatherers' efforts and were aware of their illegal and deceptive practices, but failed to exercise reasonable care to assure the integrity of the initiative process." Mike Meloy of Helena, attorney for the plaintiffs, emphasized that "While it is important for the people to have the right to propose initiatives, it is also important that the statutory requirements guaranteeing the integrity of the initiative process be followed. In this case they were not." In an effort to maximize the number of signatures, the paid signature gatherers used various schemes to induce voters to sign the petitions. One was a "bait and switch" scheme of getting voters to sign one petition, then falsely telling signers that they had to sign two "copies," which were actually petitions for the two other initiatives. Another was deliberately going beyond the petition and initiative language and providing untruthful reasons that were calculated to inflame passions and manufacture a strawman need for the initiative. Despite a statutory requirement to provide their addresses, signature gatherers gave false addresses when certifying the petitions to the Secretary of State, including shopping centers and other fictitious addresses. Additionally, one signature gatherer swore and assured that "signers knew the contents of the petition before signing," yet his own records indicated he was obtaining signatures at a pace of just under two per minute, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in gathering tens of thousands of signatures in counties hundreds of miles apart - a physical impossibility. "Given the blatant and pervasive illegalities and deceptions perpetrated by the defendants' out of state signature gatherers, we are asking the court to throw out the signatures and order that the initiatives not be put on the ballot"said Meloy. "These committees had the choice to follow the letter and spirit of Montana's initiative laws, they chose instead to utilize out of state signature gatherers of dubious character who flaunted and broke Montana's laws," added Meloy. "If our initiative process is to have any integrity, these committees must not be allowed to benefit from these blatant violations of Montana law." Complaint & Brief