I’ve been counting and recounting my petition signatures. Because the Secretary of State may be treating this like a first grade teacher grades a handwriting worksheet I’ve gotten a little paranoid. Had I turned in my petition next Tuesday instead of Friday I’m sure she would have found more than 140 of my signatures invalid and I wouldn’t have made the ballot.
On Friday, upon returning from St. Paul, I looked up the phone numbers of about 110 people who only listed their year of birth as “50” or “29” or “86.” While it seemed obvious to me that they meant 1950 and 1929 and 1986 I’d been warned that that might not cut it. I found phone numbers listed in the directory for about half these people. I’ve contacted about 40 of these signers and the numbers checked. Only one person had put down their age instead of the year of birth. In every case all the signers would have been 18 either way.
The petition clearly states that everything on the petitition must be filled in by the signer unless disability prevents them. Since I’ve just written in the 19 on these petitions I can imagine that the forty names I’ve recovered could be disqualified. I hope that the inability to reach through a telephone line will be considered one form of disability.
In addition many people who live in Duluth did not put down St. Louis County as their county of residence even though its the only county Duluthians live in. For all I know some of them may not have known the county and were too embarassed to ask. It could cost me another slug of signatures if the Secretary of State objects. Not counting the absence of a County or the number 19 on the year of birth I should have 1,171 legitimate signatures. That’s about 111, I can’t count on.
I should be able to turn them tomorrow without fear but tomorrow I’ll collect another fifty or sixty in the morning to be on the safe side before driving back to St. Paul.
