POT PETITION DRIVE FLAWED, STILL VALID UNDER CITY'S CODE

Boone County Clerk Wendy Noren said yesterday that petition
signatures submitted by a group of University of Missouri-Columbia
students seeking to decriminalize marijuana would not be allowed if
the measure were intended for the state ballot.

Because the students are seeking a change to city code, however, it
doesn't matter that the petitions were not dated, city attorney Fred
Boeckmann said.

The students, calling themselves the Columbia Alliance for Patients
and Education, are asking the Columbia City Council to pass an
ordinance that would direct all people charged with possessing 35
grams of marijuana or less to municipal court.

Earlier this week the group turned in petitions containing more than
2,600 signatures. The group needs 1,191 valid signatures to get the
measure, which also calls for limiting fines for possession and
dismissing charges against people who use marijuana for medicinal
purposes, on the April ballot.

During a discussion of the petition procedure yesterday, Noren pointed
out that state law requires people to be registered voters at the time
they sign a petition. This means each signature must be dated so
officials such as Noren can determine if they are valid.

"The petition has no date of registration on it," Noren said. "This is
the first time I've ever had this. For state petitions this wouldn't
be allowed."

Boeckmann said the city charter has no such stipulation, and the
signatures would be judged valid or invalid based on whether the
person is registered at the time Noren checks the signatures.

"Our charter does not require the petition to be dated when the person
signs it," he said. "If they're registered now, then we'll assume they
were registered when they signed it."

Noren said the students were registering people as they signed the
petition, another practice that wouldn't be allowed under state law.
Noren said to make matters worse, many of the petition gatherers
failed to turn in the registrations for weeks.

"Their behavior as far as taking care of people's registration was
abominable," Noren said. "They were taking registrations from people
when they signed the petition but didn't turn those in to us. Some of
them we didn't get until after the" Nov. 5 "election. That would not
be accepted under state law even if we got them on time."

Sarah Duff, chief petitioner, said volunteers gathered the signatures
and organizers, including her, were not told that dates were required
or that registration cards should have been turned in the day they
were filled out.

"I took very good notes when they told me what to do," Duff said.
"They didn't tell me we had to turn in voter registration cards the
day people signed the petition."

Duff said she took registration forms in every day, but some of the
other petition gatherers apparently did not.

"I would have appreciated knowing that," Duff said. "If we ever do a
state initiative, we're going to need to know that."

Noren said she should have the signatures classified by the end of the
month so city Clerk Penny St. Romaine can certify them. The Columbia
City Council must act on the measure by Jan. 20 for it to make the
April ballot.

If the signatures were certified, the city council would have two
ordinances prepared. One would give it the chance to adopt the
marijuana measure; the other would send the measure to voters.

If the council defeats the first ordinance it would have to pass the
second.